Demons and Dissertations: A Tale of Two Souls
by Avi Halliwell
Summary: "I'm prepping for my defense while waiting on a verdict for lab approval, my past life becoming corporeal, and finding out my hallucination is actually a real person." Chris justified. "So I should grab Ben and Jerry's, too?" Wyatt deduced.
1. Prologue Part 1 of 3

Enjoy! If anyone has any questions, y'all can always DM me

Takes place in the new future, a few months before Chris's 23 birthday. At this point, he knows of the future (or what they told him of it) and has had some *flashbacks* (more on that later) but not a lot.

* * *

"Will you calm down?" Wyatt begged. Chris gave him an exacerbated look.

"Calm down? Calm down? Are you kidding me?" Chris panicked. "Wy, my dissertation is due in a week and I am no where near done… I don't have time for a demon right now! I'm not even letting Matt sleep in his room?"

"Okay, but not breathing isn't going to help your cause." Wyatt talked him down. "You need to breathe, man. You'll get it done."

"What if I don't? What if-"

"You'll get it done." Wyatt assured. Chris ran a hand through his hair. "I promise."

"Wy, this is everything I have worked for… I-"

"You'll get it done." Wyatt repeated. Chris took a steadying breath. He gave up on calming down and starting pacing anxiously. He bit his thumbnail, which was already too short from the stressful week.

"I don't think I can do this, I-"

"Stop." Wyatt commanded. He put up a forcefield to prevent Chris from walking forwards. His younger brother, caught up in his meltdown, walked straight into it. He got kicked back a few inches, shocking him back.

"Ow?"

"You were spiraling. I didn't know what else to do?" Wyatt justified.

"A hug. Normal people offer hugs when someone is having a crisis." Chris responded.

"Come here." Wyatt held out his arms and held his brother for a moment. "It's going to be okay. You're going to finish it and you're going to defend and you're going walk across a stage and they are going to give an expensive piece of paper and a hood and all of your hard work is going to worth it…"

"I miss having a life." He sighed and let go. "You had a life? When was that?" Wyatt teased. Chris rolled his eyes. "You skipped grades and were still valedictorian… and then graduated college early with the same status."

"I-"

"You tried convincing me that the library counted as leaving your room in undergrad?"

"I didn't always study alone?" Chris argued.

"Look… I love you, but you're a nerdy antisocial neurotic little freak who actively hates most people and avoids most social situations-"

"What happened to trying to make me feel better?" Chris reacted.

"-and it's going to be the reason you get through this. Chris, you're the smartest person I've ever met. You'll get it done." Wyatt finished.

"Yeah." "Great. Now can we please get back to the original reason you called?" Wyatt requested. Chris crossed his arms and nodded. "What are we looking for?"

"I don't know, Wy, she was… I mean… wow, uh…" Chris scratched head, trying to stay objective. "Brunette, 5'6", 130, late twenties maybe? She was wearing this tight leather and, god, the way she moved-"

"We could set up a Tinder profile and see if you match?"

"Not funny." Chris didn't appreciate.

"Okay, okay…Anything we can use? Powers or markings or-"

"Pretty basic demon stuff. Energy ball, shimmering, conjuring-"

"And she almost killed you?"

"Hey, she was clearly trained." Chris justified. Wyatt raised an eyebrow. "Plus-"

"You're out of shape?" Wyatt joked.

"She looked like- Excuse you? I am not-"

"You're telling me you haven't gained weight the past few years? It's not exactly something you can hide, man." Wyatt teased. "That doesn't-"

"Uh huh." Wyatt crossed his arms, enjoying his brother's frustration.

"It's not that bad." Chris more for himself than Wyatt, who just rolled his eyes. Chris sighed in frustration. "Look, I was put on a new medication and I'm really stressed out with-"

"Did you hit 300?" Wyatt accused. Chris gave him an unamused glare.

"No?" Chris worried. "Do I look like... Can we please get just back to me almost dying?"

"Yeah." Wyatt accepted. Chris calmed down. "Are you sure there was nothing special about her? Anything that would-"

"Oh, she was everything but average, Wy." He blurted, getting side tracked. Wyatt listened to his brother swoon. Chris blushed and looked to the side. "You know she, uh, actually kind of looked like-"

"You got attacked by your imaginary girlfriend?" Wyatt burst out laughing. "Okay, if you're dreaming about her again, you seriously need to get laid…"

"Ha ha, very funny." Chris didn't appreciate.

"Okay, but seriously, Chris, are you sure you weren't just-"

"That energy ball was very real, Wy." Chris shot down.

"Energy ball?" Piper overheard. She walked upstairs into the attack alarmed. "Were you attacked?"

"Yeah, apparently by his sex fantasy girl." Wyatt teased, getting a glare.

"She's not-" Chris's face turned red in front of his mom. "You-"

"Hey, not my fault she doesn't like you. Probably doesn't appreciate you jacking off to her all those years." Wyatt laughed. Chris fumed. "What?"

"I'm going to kill you." Chris decided.

"You even had a name for her, didn't you?"

"Can we please stop talking about this?" Chris pleaded anxiously. "It's not funny. I-"

"God, what was it?" What continued, grinning. Chris swallowed nervously.

"Wy-"

"Bianca?" Wyatt guessed. Piper dropped the laundry basket. Her boys stopped.

"Sorry." Piper quickly snapped out of it. She cleared her voice. "I, uh, I'm-"

"You know what, never mind. Just forget I said anything. I'll let her attack me." Chris decided.

"Yeah, you into that?" Wyatt teased one more time. Chris tuned him out and grabbed his coat. "What? Wh?"

"Oh, stop being so sensitive." Wyatt rolled his eyes.

"Sensitive? You think I'm being sensitive right now?"

"You don't have to be ashamed, sweetie. It's perfectly normal to-"

"Please, just stop." Chris prayed.

"Yeah, sounds good." Piper tucked her hair behind her ear. "I'm going to go back to doing the laundry…"

"Sorry." Wyatt apologized. Chris just kept looking at the floor until his mom left. The moment she did he looked up at Wyatt and waited for his apology. "It's kind of funny?"

"No, Wy. It isn't. Aside from the fact that you should know better after everything I've been through, this other very real person almost killed me." Chris said. "I'm sorry." Wyatt apologized. Chris nodded.

"Stay so we can figure out how to keep you alive in time to graduate?"

"Yeah."

* * *

"If you think about it in more of a past life love always finds a way thing it's kind of sweet?" Phoebe tried. Paige still grimaced.

"Except she's still evil in this future." Piper stayed nervous. "She's dangerous."

"There's a reason he's having those dreams, and a reason they ran into each other again." Phoebe argued.

"Someone paid her to kill him." Leo put bluntly. "She's a hired gun."

"Maybe that's how they met in the other future? This could be when he changes her?"

"I don't know if I'm really willing to take that risk." Piper admitted.

"It's his fiancé." Paige stressed. Leo shook his head.

"She turned evil again in the other future." He said. "Broke his heart."

"What do we do?"

"We have to tell him, right?" Paige continued.

"We can't, Paige." Piper decided. "If we tell him about Bianca he'll hold back. Hesitation like that could kill him."

"Besides, if they're meant to be together, it'll work out." Phoebe trusted. "But if not, I agree with Piper. He needs to be prepared to do what's necessary."

"So what, we just let him vanquish his fiance?" Paige reminded, making them all uneasy. "Guys, if he ever finds out… can you imagine the emotional damage? When he came back to fix Wyatt's powers he remembered the past… when he finally gets those memories back it'll destroy him."

* * *

"Have you found anything yet?" Chris checked. Wyatt looked up from the book.

"From the last time you asked me five minutes ago? No."

"Sorry. I just. I need to get back to the lab and-"

"Trust me. When I find anything about a shapeshifting demon who materializes fantasy whores, you'll be the first to know." Wyatt promised. Chris shut his eyes.

"She wasn't a-"

"Hey, maybe we could travel back in time and ask eighteen year old Chris-"

"Sixteen." Chris corrected. "I had the first break at sixteen."

"Then can we go talk to freshman Chris for more information on our dominatrix?"

"Can we please just forget I mentioned her looking anything like her?" He begged.

"Okay, but all teasing aside, it's the only thing we have to go on right now." Wyatt justified. "What kind of demon was she again?"

"She's not real, Wy." Chris stressed. "Crazy hot assassin witches switching sides for to help you save the world doesn't exist outside of fan fictions and dreams. And in my case full blown not funny diagnosable hallucinations. Please don't make me question that."

"Right, sorry. Just focus on your paper. I'll let you know if something comes up."

"Thank you." Chris rubbed his eyes and kept working. A few hours later Melinda showed up to help.

* * *

Wyatt looked across the room and waited for an opening. He conjured an energy ball and sent it flying towards the witch. Chris snapped out of it just in time to react. "No!" Chris slammed into Bianca, pushing her out of the way. He got hit in the back and they crashed into a table. Melinda and Wyatt stared at their brother, who was equally confused by his actions. He grimaced in pain and then looked up. They made eye contact for a moment before she quickly blurred out.

"What the hell was that?" Melinda threw her hands up. Chris tried to push himself up a bit, but fell down at the searing pain coming from the wound.

"Mother fu-"

"What happened? I heard fighting." Piper walked into the destroyed living room. Chris looked down to asses his injury and felt dizzy. "Wyatt, heal Chris. Now."

"Yeah, I got him." "Thanks." Chris appreciated, watching his skin heal. He stayed seated. "Chris let our demon get away." Melinda blamed. Chris looked down ashamed. Piper sharply inhaled, fears coming to reality. Chris just leaned back a bit and tried to catch his breath from the fight. "We almost had her and then Chris decided to save-"

"Sorry." He apologized.

"Sorry?" Melinda mocked. Chris shut his eyes, feeling a bit nauseas.

"You okay? Do you need me to heal anything else?" Wyatt worried. Chris shook his head no. He took one more deep breath and exhaled slowly. He checked his pulse.

"I'm fine." Chris said stubbornly. Wyatt frowned. "You don't look-"

"No, I just…" Chris ran a hand through his hair. His face grimaced, anticipating the reaction. "I just… haven't done that much cardio in… when was the last demon attack?"

"Three months ago?" Wyatt judged. Chris cringed. "Are you serious?"

"I've been kind of busy okay?" He justified.

"Try selfish." Wyatt scolded. "We fight demons, Chris. That's going to get you killed."

"Can we get back to Chris saving our demon?" Melinda interrupted. "She not a demon." Chris corrected. Wyatt cursed. "Chris, you said it yourself. It's not possible-"

"I know what I saw."

"She's not real, Chris." Wyatt plead. "You're seeing what you want to see. It was probably just a-"

"What if I've just been having premonitions this whole time?"

"She doesn't exist, Chris."

"I-"

"Don't go down that rabbit hole!" Wyatt warned. Chris looked down. "You're stressed and you're seeing what you want to see or… the demon maybe got in your head. Could have scanned you while you were asleep or something… cast a spell about inner-"

"Why would a demon go looking for something like that? I'm telling you, she-"

"They could have been gathering information on your for weeks, Chris…" Melinda responded. "You're not exactly a routine target. They probably did their research."

"I think I would have noticed a demon tail?" Chris replied, offended.

"With how stressed you've been lately? Did you even notice your shirt's on backwards today?" Wyatt argued. Chris looked down. "I know you want it, but- don't do this, man… you-"

"Yeah…" Chris ran a hand through his hair and sighed. "So what do we do now?"

"Well, I don't think she's coming back tonight and I have a final due tomorrow so…" Melinda grabbed her jacket. "I'll see you guys later?"

"Yeah, good luck." Chris wished. He started cleaning up the mess. Wyatt rolled his eyes and cast a quick spell to reassemble the table. "You know, we have hands?"

"Aren't you the one worried about time?" Wyatt defended. "Speaking of which, I should probably-"

"You're not going anywhere until you're safe." Piper prohibited.

"I can't just not go to lab?" Chris reminded. "It's not safe." Wyatt agreed with their mom.

"If this thing is as smart as you think she is, then she's not about to attack next to highly flammable chemicals." Chris said. "I have to go."

"It's twelve thirty."

"No, it's twelve thirty a week from my defense." Chris corrected. "You do realize people can't stay awake that long, right?" Wyatt asked.

"I slept last night." Chris justified. "Peanut-"

"Call me if you need anything." He said before orbing out. "Yeah." Wyatt looked towards his mom. "Do you have any idea what could do this?"

"A Phoenix." Paige said, entering. Piper gave her a death glare.

"Paige-"

"They're going to find out eventually, Piper. And I'd prefer it be before she kills them."

"Did you say Phoenix?"

"Yeah." Paige continued. "A Phoenix named Bianca."


	2. Prologue Part 2 of 3

Chapter 2! I figured you guys should have 1 and 2 and 3 ready to go since they really set up the rest of the story- hope you enjoy!

TW: Mental health referenced

* * *

"Bianca's not real." Wyatt stated passionately.

"Yeah, she is." Paige confirmed. "She was Chris's fiance in the other reality."

"What!" Wyatt looked at his mom. "And you didn't tell us? If you know what she is- She almost killed us back there and-"

"Look, honey, we don't know if she'll turn in this reality and if she doesn't she can hurt you." Piper explained. "The last thing we need is Chris to see her as his- If Chris finds out he won't be able to do what's necessary and it'll get you killed."

"He already can't."

"She's dangerous, Wy."

"He deserves to know the truth, Mom." Wyatt asserted.

"If it's meant to be it'll work out." Piper trusted. "But if not… I need you ready."

"No. No, you don't know what this has… you can't play with people like this, Ma. He-"

"I can and you will if that's what is comes down to." Piper ordered. "She's deadly, and I need you guys fighting for kill. If he hesitates-"

"He already has." Wyatt reminded.

"So convince him it's not her." Piper advised. "Find a fake demon that explains the situation and then make the right vanquishing potion-"

"I not going to lie to him." Wyatt shrugged guiltlessly. "Not after-"

"You have to."

"No, I really don't…"

"Wyatt, if she doesn't turn and we end up having to kill her do you really want him living knowing who she was?" Piper asked, making him think.

"Better than what he's living with now." Wyatt shrugged.

"She's a hired gun. The only thing she knows is that someone's paying her to kill him."

"If the only reason she's after us is because someone is paying her, then why aren't we trying to figure out who actually wants us dead? Even if we kill her, they'll just send another assassin. We should be looking for the benefactor." Wyatt redirected. "She'll stop coming after us if there's no one to pay her. We can tell him if we don't have to kill her?"

"That's actually not a bad." Paige approved. "We need to wait until we find the demon after him in case she attacks again." Piper asserted. Wyatt struggled. "It's the safest option."

"You want to find that demon, Chris will have the name by the end of the night knowing who she is." Wyatt said stubbornly.

"He's right, Piper." Paige agreed.

"He has the right to know." Wyatt stressed. "I'm telling him."

"Wy-" Piper called after her son as he orbed away.

"Where'd he go?" Chris wondered as he walked into the room.

"I thought you were at the lab?" Piper defaulted. Chris shrugged.

"It's kind of hard to concentrate when someone wants you dead." He admitted. "If I'm going to do any research tonight it'll be figuring out what attacked-"

"We already know." Paige stated. Piper gave him a warning look. Chris waited for more. Paige continued despite her sister's disapproval. "Great, what are we after?"

"You should sit down." She advised.

"Why?" Chris didn't move.

"They're called the Phoenix. A family of-" Chris started nervously laughing. His heart rate sped. He tried to appear calm. He didn't think it was working.

"Her name is Bianca." Piper continued, hating Paige for forcing her hand. "I should have known at the attack…" "Peanut-" Piper walked forwards. He stepped back.

"Nope." Chris shook his head. "This isn't happening. This isn't real."

"When you came back… you, um, she tried to bring you back home."

"She worked for Wyatt." Piper judged. Paige gave her a look. "But before that she helped you plan the entire thing. She was good. And you guys…"

"Oh, no. Nope. Stop. Please. That's not-" Chris panicked. He started started feeling faint. He grabbed his head. "Calm down. It's okay. She's not real… this isn't… you're just-"

"You were engaged." Paige continued. "Your dreams-"

"Bianca doesn't exist!" He screamed, frightening them. Paige swallowed.

"Yeah, she's does."

"Don't engage… it'll go away… " He took deep soothing breaths and started talking to himself. "You're just stressed and triggered a-"

"Chris, listen to me. Bianca-" "Stop! Don't lie to me!" Chris shouted on the verge of tears.

"She doesn't exist. Please, just… go away. Leave me alone."

"Chris?" Paige furrowed her brows.

"Snap out of it…" He ordered himself.

"She doesn't exist. This isn't real."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Paige yelled. Chris flinched. He brought a hand to his head.

"Chris?"

"None of this is happening…" Chris kept trying to breathe.

"Honey?" Piper walked up to her son. "Why can't you people just leave me alone?"

"Sweetie, you're not making any sense." Piper said, trying to talk him down.

"Get the fuck out of my head!" Chris screamed. They froze. He closed his eye and held his head. "It's okay. You're okay. This isn't actually happening…. It's just… it's okay… you're okay…"

"Oh my god…" Paige put it together. Wyatt orbed back, not finding his brother in the lab. He quickly assessed the scene and his heart dropped.

"What did you do?" Wyatt accused.

"Exactly what you wanted us to-"

"Not like this? Do you have any idea what you're getting into?" Wyatt looked back at his unravelling younger brother. "You should have let me talk to him…"

"Shut up. Shut up. Shut up." Chris muttered. "None of this isn't happening…It's okay. You're okay. None of this is real…"

"Chris?" Wyatt approached carefully. His brother kept muttering.

"Bianca doesn't exist, none of this is real…"

"Chris, it's Wyatt. Can you look at me?"

"Go away." Chris cried. Wyatt tried again. "Just leave me alone… I just want to be left alone… why won't you people leave me alone…"

"I'm your big brother, it's my job to pick on you." Wyatt joked, trying to get through to him. Chris looked up hesitantly. "Good, focus on me."

"Wy?" He questioned. He struggled. "You real?"

"Yeah."

"Can you take me to the hospital?" He asked of Wyatt, looking shamefully between his mom and aunt. "I need-"

"You're not hallucinating this one, Chris." Wyatt said. "She's real." "Oh, god. Not you, too…" Chris feared. He stepped back, no longer trusting his brother. He hugged himself and trembled. He looked up and called desperately. "Wyatt? Wy! I need you to come down."

"Chris, I'm right here." Wyatt asserted. "I'm real."

"No-"

"Look me in the eye and tell me I'm not real." Wyatt got his attention. Chris's face grimaced as he questioned his reality. Wyatt nodded. "It's me, man."

"But Bi-" Chris's voice cracked. Wyatt pulled him into a hug. "She can't. I… she's just-"

"I've got you." Wyatt held tighter. Chris shook. "I've got you."

"I'm not crazy…?"

"No." Wyatt promised. "No, you're not crazy. You never were."

"Why did no one tell me?"

"I'm sorry. I just found out." Wyatt assured. He knew his brother would need someone to trust. "We're going to figure this out."

"It's going to be okay, baby." Piper added. Chris pulled away. He looked at her in betrayal.

"Did you know?" He clenched his jaw.

"She's dangerous, Chris." Piper justified. He shook his head, getting angry.

"Dangerous? You let me believe I was schizophrenic!" He shamed. "It wasn't a sex dream. She's a full person. My subconscious recreated her. We didn't just sleep together. Hell, most of the time I would just talk with her for hours."

"Chris-"

"No… while you've known she's real this entire time, I have been in therapy to stop thinking about her!" Chris fumed.

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"I'm sorry, you're upset?" Chris couldn't believe. "Do you have any idea how many antipsychotics I've tried in the past two years? Hell, I've gained 70 lbs on that shit…"

"Baby, we don't know if you coming back changed her…" Piper scrambled. Chris grew angrier. "Even in the other future, she turned back. Who knows-"

"Not good enough." He growled.

"Honey-"

"No."

"If you hesitate on the hope she might turn-"

"Could you kill dad?" Chris asked, putting her on the spot. "If I told you he didn't remember being married to you and attacked. Would you be able to do it?"

"I-"

"Leave me alone." Chris threatened. "Chris, your mom just wanted the best-"

"What's best?" Chris snapped. "You let me me question reality for years…"

"She's stronger than you, Chris." Piper explained.

"I don't care!"

"She almost killed you."

"I almost killed me!" Chris revealed, crying.

"Baby, I had no idea, Chris." Piper reminded. He scoffed. "If I did-"

"What were you going to do if I ended up remembering on my birthday?" Chris wondered quietly.

"We don't know if you're going to-"

"When I came back the second time I remembered everything." He said, calling her out.

"Peanut-"

"Just admit you were wrong, Mom." Wyatt said quietly, seeing his brother hurting.

"Anything else about my life you've elected not to tell me?" He accused. "Other huge parts of myself that you've hidden?"

"She died, Chris. Before your birthday… kind of around now." Paige told sadly. He paused. "You went to the other future with her, and you came back alone."

"How-"

"We don't know." Piper added honestly. "You didn't talk about it."

"Did I kill-"

"We don't know. You disappeared for awhile after it happened, and when you came back you never mentioned it. Every time we tried…" Paige thought a kind way to put it. "I think you figured if you could fix the future, you could change what had happened…"

"So I'll change what happens." Chris decided, and orbed out. Wyatt reached out to grab onto his trail, but just missed him.

"Where did he go?" Piper panicked. Wyatt tried sensing his charge.

"Either the underworld or he's blocking me." Wyatt reported. "Most likely both."

"Start scrying. Now." Piper demanded. Paige nodded.

"What do we scry with?" Paige looked around. Wyatt orbed her Chris's backpack.

"Jesus this thing weighs like a hundred pounds." She reacted, having to set it down.

* * *

Chris landed in a park center and walked over to particular white bench. You're asking me here? Now? He sat down and ran a hand through his hair. He then leaned forwards, elbows on his knees and face in hands, as he tried to wrap his head around what happened. Fiance. He felt tears beginning to fall, first interspersed but quickly streaming. Bianca. He struggled to breathe, sobs choking him. He sat back up and clenched his jaw, trying to calm down. You better come back to me, safely. Chris blinked away tears. They started to run dry. I love you.

"Love you, too." He replied in a whisper. "God, what the hell is happening…"

"I don't know but it's going to make my job a hell of a lot easier." A female voice said. Chris turned around just in time to block an attack. Bianca smirked. Chris's heart raced. He defended as best he could so distracted. He couldn't help but see her as the woman he loved. Bianca took his hesitation and pinned him down. Chris's eyes went wide as she shoved a hand in his sternum to prevent him from orbing out. She pressed a blade against his neck. He made eye contact, praying she would recognize him. "Bianca, please…"

"How do you know that name?" She demanded, pushing the knife closer.

"Bianca-"

"I asked you a question." Bianca reminded.

"Let me live and I'll explain?" Chris proposed.

"How do I know you won't try to kill me the moment I let go?" Bianca squinted and searched his face to see if it was a trick.

"If I was just going to kill you I wouldn't have saved you." He responded. She allowed him to sit up and breathe. He rubbed his neck and counted his blessings.

"Thanks."

"How do you know my real name?" Bianca stayed on target. Chris looked up at her.

"Same reason I know you don't really want to kill me." He shrugged. "That after the first time you killed a human you felt so guilty you vanquished the demon who hired you so he couldn't kill anyone else… even the score…"

"I've never told-"

"You told me." Chris corrected.

"What are you?" Bianca asked.

"Me? You're the one who isn't supposed to exist." Chris said, too casually for her liking.

"Excuse me?" She braced herself for a fight.

"Sorry, I- it's not- I- you know it's kind of a long story… Maybe we could trade athames for coffee?" Chris hoped and motioned for her to drop her weapon. She held on for just a question longer. "I'm not going to attack you."

"Why not?"

"I like you."

"Most people don't say that about their assassins." Bianca reminded him. He shrugged.

"Most people don't have 8 year relationships with them either."

"I've never met you." Bianca said confidently. "Start telling me the truth or we'll go back to me killing you."

"I've been having visions of you for the past few years." Chris started.

"Excuse me?"

"In a previous life I time travelled to prevent an awful future… I don't remember most of it… any of it… except you. I remember us." He tried. She frowned. "I know how crazy that all sounds, because I thought you were a hallucination up until about a half hour ago. But you're here. You're real. And… according to people who knew me when I came back, you…I thought I was crazy-"

"Yeah, me too." She backed up a bit. He ran a hand through his hair and tried again.

"A boy named Travis picked on you in third grade. He made fun of you because you didn't have a dad." Chris mentioned casually, making her nervous. "You used to hide under the playground to avoid him during recess. It worked for a few weeks until one day it was too rainy to go outside and you had to stay indoors. He said something mean and you ran to the bathroom crying. That was the day you learned how shimmer. You shut your eyes and wished to be anywhere else… and you ended up right here in this park, and then it became the place where you would go when you were scared or sad or angry or just need to think or-"

"How do you-"

"You told me." He repeated. "You told me and I came to this park every day for a week hoping to see you… but you never came."

"I stopped coming." She explained.

"It's not safe for an assassin to frequent the same place over and over…" Chris explained for her. "Makes you vulnerable, right?"

"Yeah." "That's what you told me when you didn't show up." Chris said in a frustrated tone. "I held onto the that until I was hospitalized… haven't been back here since… the meds finally worked. I stopped seeing you, and I was afraid to come back in case it triggered a break."

"Who was I in the other future?" She started to believe him. "To you?"

"You wouldn't believe me."

"Try me." Bianca challenged.

"My fiancé." He revealed right before she exploded. He frantically looked through the smoke to see his sister and brother. They sprinted towards him. Bianca reformed and held a knife to Chris's throat.

"Follow us and I'll kill him." Bianca threatened before shimmering out. Melinda and Wyatt stopped, surprised she's even give them an alternative to keep him alive. Bianca and Chris reappeared in a small studio apartment. She pulled his phone from his pocket and then let him go. "If you're thinking of orbing out or calling for your brother, don't bother. Magic doesn't work in here."

"Including yours? Why would you-"

"You're the one who knows me so well, you tell me."

"You won't show up on the scry."

"Nice job, Sherlock."

"If magic doesn't work can go through the front door?" Chris wondered.

"If you're actually telling the truth, I highly doubt it." Bianca grabbed a pair of pajamas. He scrunched his eyebrows. "I don't know if it'll fit but you're welcome to try it on if you want to sleep in something else." "Wait, what?" Chris caught the clothing tossed to him.

"The first aid kit's over the sink. I'm going to go shower." Bianca said before leaving him alone in the room. Chris first looked down at an old oversized teeshirt and sweatpants. He then noticed his shoulder bleeding. He cursed and pulled off his shirt carefully avoiding the energy ball burn. He started dressing his wounds and then sized up the not burnt shirt. He looked at his stomach and didn't even bother. The pants fit though. Not exactly loose, but still comfortable. He was almost frustrated and then counted his blessings instead. He looked around at a room he'd been in a hundred times before for the first time. His eyes wandered until they landed on the girl of his dreams. He smiled softly. She cleared her throat.

"Still strangers in this reality?" She reminded, tightening the towel around her. Chris blushed and averted his eyes. He couldn't help but glance back up. "Dude?"

"Sorry." He covered his eyes to prevent his eyes from drifting back. "Okay, I'm decent." Bianca announced. He uncovered his eyes to find her in a t-shirt and running shorts. He smirked at the stark contrast between the woman who attacked and the one in front of him now. She walked over to take a look at his shoulder.

"You okay?"

"I've had worse." Chris held his breath. She was within arms reach. He looked down at the woman he loved as she inspected the wound. She noticed his gaze and looked up. She saw the love in his eye, but looked back at stranger. He wanted nothing more than to touch her, feel her realness. She noticed him struggling and broke eye contact in guilt. She stepped back away. He clenched his jaw and hoped tears wouldn't come. "I'm really sorry." Bianca whispered. She hugged herself and thought of distraction.

"Do you want a different top?"

"Thanks, but you're maybe 5' 6" and I've got at least a fifty pounds on you… I have a feeling they won't fit?"

"They might? I buy my sweats three sizes too big and usually from the mens department." She shrugged. He looked down at the pants, finally understanding. "I'll go check if any of them are clean."

"Yeah." He accepted. She walked over to the closet and started searching. "How do you feel about USC?"

"I went to UCLA." Chris responded. "We were engaged?" She doubted.

"I don't think I went to college in that future." He rationalized. "How did you balance being a Phoenix and school?"

"How do you balance being Charmed?" She countered. "Okay, fair." Chris carefully put the sweatshirt on and relaxed when it fit. He looked down and he frowned. "I feel like a traitor."

"A cute traitor." She corrected. He shot his head up and then her eyes went wide, realizing she spoke out loud. "I, uh-"

"Thanks." Chris blushed.

* * *

"She took him?" Piper reacted. Wyatt shrugged. "I mean she had the opportunity to kill him and she didn't. She kidnapped him."

"She was fighting for the kill last time?" Piper made sure.

"Yeah." Melinda confirmed.

"So what changed?" Leo posed.

* * *

"If we cast this we'll remember the other future in its entirety." Chris warned. "And all of the horrible things that happened… are you sure you want to do this?"

"Did you love me?" Bianca needed to know. He froze. She waited for him to build the courage. He finally nodded slightly. She took a deep breath to calm down. "Then yeah, I do…"

"Okay." Chris looked down at the prose and hesitated.

"What's wrong?" She worried.

"Whatever we're about to remember… it was worth going back in time to erase." He worried. She reached out and held his hand. His heart stopped for a moment. He stared at it.

"We'll have each other to get through it." Bianca whispered, making him tear up. He nodded, slightly and then more confidently. Chris swallowed nervously and then looked back down at the spell. He went to speak, but the words didn't come out at first. He tried again, this time looking at Bianca.

"Here these words, hear the rhyme. Heed the hope within my mind." Chris began. She took a deep breath. "Restore the memories so we may find, the love we lost in space and time." Bianca finished. The candle blew out and a gust of wind knocked them unconscious.


	3. Prologue Part 3 of 3

We're almost done setting up! Yay! Thanks for sticking with me :) Hope you enjoy it!

* * *

Chris gasped awake. His heart raced. He put his hand on his stomach searching for a knife wound. He found himself in a very different body. He frantically looked around the room trying to place where he was. The moment he saw Bianca, though, he no longer cared. He shook her shoulder. She didn't respond. He checked her pulse and relaxed a bit when he found it. Chris then looked down at a sheet of paper next to a candle and frowned at his own handwriting. He ran a hand through hishair and swallowed nervously.

* * *

"Got him!" Wyatt exclaimed.

"Where?"

"He's… home?" He couldn't believe.

"Why wouldn't he call us if he got away?" Piper didn't understand.

"Who cares, let's go talk to him." Melinda grabbed her brothers hand to be orbed. Wyatt took them to Chris's living room. They split up to look for him. Wyatt searched the bedroom. He walked in and saw Bianca on the ground. Chris waited patiently next to her.

"Chris?" Wyatt said hesitantly. Chris's head snapped up at the sound of his brother. His eyes went wide. Chris defensively moved between Wyatt and Bianca. "Thank god you're ok-"

"Stay the hell away from her." Chris growled. Wyatt frowned. He took a step forward, carefully approaching his brother. Chris sent a powerful telekinetic wave out, pushing his brother back into the wall. "I said stay away!"

"Peanut?" Chris froze at Piper's entrance. "Mom?" He started crying at the wrinkle on her forehead and the few intruding grey hairs. He brought a hand to his head in disbelief. "You- Oh, you're… old?"

"Baby?" Piper worried. Bianca stirred awake. She put a hand on her sternum.

"Bianca." Chris turned at the motion. She scrambled back at the sight of Wyatt. She conjured and energy ball. Chris reacted quickly and grabbed onto her to protect his brother. "It's not him, Bi… It worked. Come here. You're okay."

"I died." She trembled. She stared at him. Chris brought her into an embrace. "He-"

"You're okay." He cried. "You're okay…"

"But he killed me…how…" She got out. Piper looked over at her eldest.

"What?" Wyatt's heart dropped. Chris ignored him. He focused solely on Bianca and blocked out the rest of the world. Melinda brought a hand to her mouth.

"It doesn't matter. You're okay. Oh my god, you're okay."

"I will be unless you suffocate me." Bianca joked. Chris let go just enough to look at her face. She caressed his cheek and kissed him softly. He replied passionately, making his family uncomfortable.

"God, I love you so much." He whispered. Piper felt a pang of guilt, realizing the gravity of what she had hid from her son. Chris rested his forehead on Bianca's to breathe a bit.

"We did it?" Bianca exhaled in disbelief. Chris kissed her one more time and brought her back into a hug. Chris looked up past her and made eye contact with his very much alive mother.

"Did we get you back?" Piper spoke hesitantly. Chris nodded slightly, confirming her speculation. Piper smirked. Chris looked at the good version of his brother proudly. Melinda tilted her head, realizing she'd been completely ignored.

"Do you know who I am?" Melinda interrupted. Chris paused. He looked over at an unfamiliar young girl who seemed like carbon copy of his mother.

"I-"

"Do you know who I am?" Melinda repeated, trying to hold it together. Chris hesitated, not sure how to proceed. Bianca pulled away to let him focus. "You don't, do you?"

"I-" He looked towards his mom for help.

"I didn't exist in your future, did I?" She pieced together.

"I'm really sorry." He apologized. "What did you do?" She demanded. He frowned. "What did you do to him?"

"Melinda-" Piper reached out to her upset daughter.

"WHERE THE HELL IS HE?" Melinda screamed. "What did you do with my brother?"

"You're my sister?" Chris shook.

"You don't remember?" Wyatt said. Chris turned to look at him. "Do you remember any of it? Our life?"

"Reverse the spell." Melinda ordered. "Mom-"

"I finally got you back?" Piper walked over to her neurotic white lighter from the future.

"What are you doing? Mom? He-" Melinda looked at her mom in betrayal. Chris stood up and felt his mom hug him. He hugged her back.

"You created a beautiful world." She told him. He shut his eyes and reveled in the moment. "Congratulations, baby."

"Thank you." He appreciated. He let go. "I need to see dad."

"Go ahead." Piper allowed. Chris looked back to check with Bianca, who nodded. He orbed out. He orbed to the Manor. He checked the time and walked into the bedroom. He softly nudged his father awake. Leo blinked awake. Chris telekinetically flipped the lights on.

"Son?"

"Morning." Chris smiled.

"You're okay." Leo relaxed. He nodded climbed onto the bed next to his dad. He snuggled up like a small child.

"I love you." He whispered. "Are you okay?" Leo worried.

"Thank you for not giving up." Chris responded. Leo looked down confused.

"What-"

"You got me home, Dad."

"Oh my god." Leo pulled his son in closer. "Oh my god…"

* * *

"He deserves a day to enjoy it." Piper shrugged.

"Mom, he doesn't remember me!" Melinda shouted. "Any of it. How are you okay with that?"

"We need to give it time, Melinda. See if it all comes back." Piper explained.

"We don't have time to wait, Mom." Wyatt said. "Aside from the fact that he doesn't remember us, his dissertation is due in a few days. Everything he has ever worked for-"

"What he's worked for? Wyatt that young man just realized he saved the world." Piper reminded. "That young man was our friend and he died. He died and we just got him back."

"At the expense of your son." Melinda scolded. "That is my son." Piper said. "He was equally mine, and I just got him back… we'll fix it, I promise. But I'm not wasting the opportunity to see him again nor will make him feel guilty for enjoying what he made."

* * *

"You coming?" Bianca stopped and looked back. Chris had stopped. He miserably shook his head no. "You okay?"

"I don't work out in this future…" Chris accepted, winded. "Oh my god…"

"We could walk in the park instead?" She suggested, just wanting to enjoy the day.

"Yeah, let's do that." Chris liked. He tried gathering his breath. "Jesus… that was like that a half mile?"

"Quarter…we'll work on it?" Bianca giggled and patted him on the chest. He exhaled sharply, and then put aside his frustration. He wrapped his arm around her and moaned as he took in the sun. "If getting soft is the only thing I have to complain about, we did a damn good job."

"I'm really proud of you." Bianca affirmed. He spun her in to kiss her. "I love you."

"I love you more." Chris kissed her again. They were interrupted by a phone call. Chris dug in his pocket and struggled with the advanced technology. He figured it out just in time and held it to his ear. "Yeah?"

"Where the hell are you, man?" A desperate voice asked. Chris could tell the person was freaking out. "The meeting starts in thirty minutes! I didn't see you this morning, I assumed you were already here and-"

"I'm sorry, what?" Chris racked his brain for any detail of his new life. "Did you forget?" They couldn't believe. "I-"

"Chris, this is your entire future." They judged him.

"Right…" Bianca saw his face go white. "I'll call you right back."

"What! Chris, you-" Chris hung up and immediately called Wyatt.

"Hello?"

"What do I do in this future?" Chris asked impatiently.

"What?"

"I just got a call about a meeting that determines my entire future, what is it?" "Fuck, is that today?" Wyatt panicked for him. "Um, where are you?"

"The park. We went for a run…"

"You- I'm sorry, you what?" Wyatt stopped. "Did you say run?"

"Okay, I get that might be funny in this future, but what's not funny is how much anxiety my body experiencing over something I've never even heard of. I'm freaking out." Chris explained, heart racing and hands going clammy. "What the am I supposed to be doing today?"

"You've been working on this drug… hoping the FDA will sponsor a human trial after you graduate." Wyatt answered. "Chris, you've been working towards this for… you came up with the theory back in undergrad."

"Back in undergrad? How old am I?"

"You skipped a bunch of grades… that's not important right now." Wyatt refocused. "If you don't show up to that meeting and present-"

"Present what exactly?"

"The research you've been doing for the past six years?" Wyatt tried. Chris felt like he was going to throw up. He swallowed it.

"Oh."

"Do you remember any of it?" Wyatt hoped. Chris stayed quiet. "Okay, uh, read this…"

"Read what?" Chris got a text message from his brother. He scrolled through the titles and tilted his head. He put the phone back up to his ear.

"Do I usually understand this?"

"You wrote it." Wyatt patronized. Chris swallowed nervously.

"What do I do?" His voice cracked.

"I don't know, but if you fuck up my brothers life I swear to god I-" Chris hung up before Wyatt finished. He felt his throat close and tears begin to fall.

"What's wrong?" Bianca asked hesitantly. He shook his head. His face grimaced and it turned into a sob.

"I don't… I-"

"Hey? Look at me?" Bianca grabbed his attention before he spiraled. "We'll figure it out. Let's go talk to the sisters, they'll help?"

"Yeah." Chris tried to breathe through it. Bianca took his preoccupation to shimmer them to the Manor. They walked in on a family meeting. Chris went to the kitchen to cool down. Bianca knocked on the arch, interrupting the discussion most likely about them.

"Bianca…" Leo froze. They shifted awkwardly.

"Sorry, can I steal you and Piper for a minute?" She requested.

"Of course." Leo helped his wife stand up. When they got closer and saw her serious face, Piper worried.

"What's wrong?"

"Something with Chris… he's freaking out… I've never seen him like-"

"I've got him." Piper went to find her son. "Chris?"

"I can't breathe." Chris gasped for air. "I feel like I'm going to pass out and-"

"It's going to be okay, peanut." Piper tried talking him down. He shook his head.

"No, no, it feels like I'm… oh, what the fuck is happening?" Chris cried.

"You're having a panic attack. It'll pass." Piper explained. She went to her purse and grabbed a bottle. "Sit down and take this?"

"Why is this a thing?" Chris coughed and gasped on repeat. He paused for a moment to swallow the pill. "Do I do this frequently? Don't you guys have therapists in this future?"

"Yeah, you've had a few." Piper rubbed his shoulder. He leaned his head into her. "It's going to be okay, Baby."

"There's a meeting I have to present-"

"When is it?" She worried. Chris checked his watch.

"Ten minutes?" He guessed. She sharply inhaled. "Yeah."

"It's okay, we'll figure it out." Piper said. "Can you reschedule?"

"Didn't sound like it."

"Do you know who called?" She tried another approach.

"The called ID said Matt?"

"He's your best friend… text him and let him know you're having a panic attack… he'll buy us a few minutes." Piper commanded. Chris pulled out the foreign device and tried to figure out how to unlock it. Piper took it out of his hands and did it for him. He scrolled through a few of the prior messages to get a sense of how they communicated. Pretentiously, apparently. He drafted a message and held it up to his mom.

"Does that sound like me?" He hoped.

"Yeah." She approved. He started receiving messages the second he sent his. Chris tilted his head at the onslaught of science memes. He didn't understand them.

"That's sweet."

"What? Freaking me out further?"

"He's trying to help. You'd laugh at that. You should thank him." She advised. He nodded. "Okay, let's figure this out…"

"Just switch me back?" He gave up.

"What? No, Chris, I'm not going to-"

"I can't just replace your son, Ma. We're clearly two different people."

"Sorry to interrupt, but-" Melinda stopped when she made eye contact with Chris.

"What is it, hun?"

"Uh-" She gathered her attention again. "We think we may have found a way to save both Chrises? There's a spell that splits the soul and I think if we reword it-"

"Have two of us walking around? How does that work?" Chris looked up to his mom.

"Long lost twin?" Piper shrugged. Chris nodded. "Is it dangerous?"

"It's… complicated."

"How so?" Chris worried. "Well, we're going to need something of yours in order to bring you back."

"And of Bianca's…" Chris cursed and then ran a hand through his hair. Melinda almost smirked at the common nervous habit. Piper relaxed.

"That's it? Everything else is good?"

"Yeah, but how-"

"Not a problem." Piper assured. Chris raised an eyebrow. "We saved your stuff from the club. I couldn't get rid of it after… it's in the basement."

"And Bianca?"

"We have the ring."

"Wait."

"What?"

"I haven't been preparing for the meeting. Mom, he's going to freak out all over again."

"I'll take care of it." Melinda said. "Just work on the spell. Can you orb me over?"

"To where?"

"I'll ask Wyatt…" Melinda left.

"I'll get the stuff." Piper left, too. Chris sat in the kitchen alone. Bianca knocked on the doorframe. Chris nodded. She walked in and held his hands. He smiled at her.

"Are you feeling any better?"

"A bit."

"Good." She said. He stood up to meet her. "I love you so much… I'm so sorry I-"

"We've been through it, Bianca. You were just trying to protect me." He forgave again.

"So what do we do?"

"Did you hear the plan?" "Yeah, but afterwards?" She feared. "Our lives…"

"We'll figure it out." He trusted.

"You're awfully calm."

"I think my mom gave me Xanax." Chris determined. He exhaled slowly. "We've got to get some of this… I guarantee I'd drink less."

"I don't think drugs are the solution to your drinking problem." Bianca let down.

"The world being this fucking nice, though… if I complain about anything ever again-"

"I'm going to hold you to that." She kissed him. He kissed her back softly. "If you're drugged am I taking advantage of you right now?"

"If you are please don't stop." He kept kissing her.

"I got the stuff." Piper announced. She shut the basement door. Chris kissed Bianca once more time before splitting apart. Piper exhaled. "God, that's weird."

"What do you mean?" Chris furrowed his brows. Piper froze. He became concerned.

"Um, well, you've just never really- uh, you've-"

"Do I have a different girl friend in this future?" Chris guessed. Piper snorted. "I don't understand-"

"You never really…" Piper thought of a way to put it. "You and girls- you get really nervous and, and you psych yourself out and- well, you're not really- I- social is a bit hard?"

"Oh." Chris processed. Bianca laughed.

"Sorry. That's just… different…" Bianca couldn't stop. Chris glared at her until she did. "What?" He motioned towards his blushing mother. Bianca cringed. "Sorry."

"Are we going to do this spell or not?" Chris begged.


	4. Chapter 1

Initial reactions to the new comers/meeting the new world! Hope you enjoy- if you do, let me know! If you don't, let me know! If something is terribly wrong, you can influence where the story goes :)

*just because I'm paranoid about plagrism- I do quote some of the script

* * *

The Chris's stared at the other. They then walked around each other. They did a once over. They did another. Bianca gaped at their identical manner. Chris cleared his throat.

"It's nice to finally meet you." He extended a hand. The other him took it.

"Okay, this is weird." Phoebe blurted. "Please tell me I'm not the only one who thinks this is weird?"

"It's weird." Paige validated. "So how are we going to do this?"

"What do you mean?" Both Chris's asked. They looked at each other.

"Definitely weird." Wyatt confirmed. Paige elaborated.

"How are we telling everyone apart?"

"You can call me Perry." Past Chris solved. "It's what I went by in the other future when I was hiding from- I'm used to it."

"Okay." They accepted. Bianca looked at herself and shrugged. Perry scratched his cheek. He smiled to himself.

"What are you smiling at?" His Bianca wondered. They made eye contact. "No."

"Oh, come on? It's the name you always pick whenever we'd- you like it." Perry recovered quickly. Chris raised his eyebrow at his apparent sex life. Bianca bit her lip.

"Fine." She agreed. He grinned. "Call me Skye."

"Great." Piper clapped. Skye went up to Perry. She whispered in his ear.

"This does not mean I'm stripping more often." She made clear. He playfully rolled his eyes. She turned to the family.

"So how do we visibly tell each other apart?" Bianca wondered. Perry panicked for a moment and looked down at himself to make sure things were all back to normal. He relaxed at his old body. Chris scoffed and rolled his eyes. "For Skye and I?"

"We could dye our hair?" Skye suggested. Bianca hesitated. "I can dye my hair… I'll just pull it up for today."

"Wait… today…what day is today?" Chris realized. They stayed silent. His eyes went wide and his heart raced regardless of the Xanax. "Why was that not the first thing you said?"

"I-"

"I'm so not ready?" Chris looked down at the workout clothes he didn't know he owned. He nervously ran a hand through his hair. "I have to go."

"Good luck?" Wyatt spoke for everyone. Chris orbed out.

"I should probably head out, too." Bianca decided and shimmered. She quickly reappeared. "There's still a bounty on Chris's head… I have twelve hours. My client-"

"Vanquish him?" Wyatt shrugged.

"She can't, Wyatt." Skye knew. "She'll never get hired again."

"Good. If she keeps killing people-"

"I don't kill people." Bianca made clear. "I don't deal in humans unless-"

"It's Chris?" Wyatt argued. Bianca winced.

"Look, I'm not proud that I took the job… but… he's technically not human and he's worth more than I-" Bianca looked towards Skye for understanding. Skye looked to the side. "I usually take demon on demon jobs… but I needed the money and if I don't bring them Chris's body… if I kill my client… it looks like I picked a side. It's suicide… I'm not going to kill anyone, I just- Chris was my way out of the life. Without him… I'm going to have to take more jobs… but I'm not going to hurt anyone… please believe me…"

"Why would we believe you?"

"Because I know how it felt when we killed the first time." Skye said.

"Last time I saw you was when you tried to turn my son in." Piper warned. "No offense, but you're not exactly in the trusted enough category to vouch for another person."

"Am I?" Perry tried.

"What do you need the money for?" Phoebe wondered. Bianca let out a nervous laugh.

"Student loans?" She admitted, shocking the room. "I can't afford my rent let alone… Like I said, he was just my way out of the life…"

"What did we go to school for?" Skye asked curiously.

"Education." Bianca answered shyly.

"You're a teacher?" Wyatt couldn't believe. Bianca nodded.

"Look, I grew up in this life. It's all I know, but I'm trying… I don't want to hurt anyone…" She promised. Piper reluctantly accepted it. She turned towards Bianca.

"I'll kill him for you. It'll look less suspicious that way." Perry decided.

"Thank you." She appreciated. "

"Of course." Perry coughed. "So who wants me dead?"

"I forget how casually you act with demon stuff…" Phoebe shook her head.

"Yeah, that's weird." Wyatt agreed.

"How do I usually react?"

"A lot more panicking involved." Wyatt put kindly. Chris nodded as he processed.

"Well, that's the thing, actually…" Bianca prepared for their reaction. "I don't actually know?"

"What?"

"They spoke through a third party." She explained. "And then the messenger… well… let's just say they won't be able to help us find out."

"How were you supposed to collect your bounty?" Skye asked. "I have a number."

"For the demon?"

"Wire transfer." Bianca disappointed. "It'll only work if you- if Chris is dead."

"If you don't collect what are the chances they'll come after you?" Leo brainstormed.

"With the kind money they offered? Highly unlikely. They'll just send more assassins."

"Which means he's still in danger."

"Yeah. The moment my clock runs out more people will start coming." Bianca predicted.

"How much money are we talking?" Perry wondered.

"Trying to figure out how much you're worth?" Wyatt teased.

"It could limit the pool?" He justified.

"10 million." Bianca revealed.

"Jesus… with how infrequently we hunt these days?" Wyatt couldn't believe.

"10 million? Really?" Perry frowned. "How much was Wy willing to pay for me?"

"I turned." Skye stressed. Perry processed. "Anyways, who has that kind of money?"

"The source if there was one… are we sure it was demonic?" Coop posed.

"Am I worth 10 million to anyone else?" Perry doubted.

"Fate." He replied.

"You think Fate is trying to kill me?"

"That or to set you up." Coop proposed. "Well, look at that." An old woman suddenly appeared. She turned to Perry and looked him up and down. He assumed the defensive.

"Oh, relax. I'm not here to hurt you. This was all meant to happen. Your souls were meant to meet, and you to join us."

"What?"

"Welcome to the world you created." She greeted.

* * *

"Are you sure?" Perry triple checked. Piper rolled her eyes.

"This is still your home." She reminded. He stayed stubborn. "Besides, you don't even have a social security number. Where else are you going to go?"

"Yeah, how is that going to work exactly?" Perry worried.

"The Elders are figuring out an alias." Leo said.

"Can they give me a college degree?" Perry tried.

"Do you have the education to back it?" Leo wondered. His son shied away.

"Can they at least give me a high school transcript worth accepting?" Perry hoped. "Or one that says I finished?"

"I'll talk to them." Leo offered. "Skye?"

"What?"

"Do you have any requests? Anything you want from your past life? Or wanted to do?"

"The less I have of my old life, the better." She believed. Perry took a step back.

"Wow." He acted offended.

"Except you, dumbass…" She giggled. He grabbed her and pulled her close. She waited for him to kiss her. He hesitated, taking time to appreciate the woman in front of him. The way he looked at her almost made Piper tear up. He kissed her softly and then rested his forehead on hers, completely at peace.

"I love you so much." He promised. She smirked.

"You're right, it's weird." Leo whispered to Piper. Perry looked up. "Sorry, what?"

"Don't worry about it." Piper covered. He nodded.

"Oh, hey, when you're ready I'll have to get health histories for you guys." Leo said.

"Healthy as a horse." Skye reported. Perry hesitated.

"Chris?"

"Have I had any issues here?" He asked first.

"You've had a few therapists?" Piper reminded. Perry nodded.

"Anything else?"

"Why? Have you?"

"Yeah." He revealed. "Yeah, I had leukemia as a kid."

* * *

 _"Et tu, Chris? Of all the people to betray me."_  
 _"I didn't go back to betray you, Wyatt. I went back to save you."_  
 _"Save me? From what?"_  
 _"Whatever evil it was that turned you."_

"Are you drinking?" Leo wondered. Perry looked up.

"Yeah. Why?" He casually poured another glass.

"Should you be drinking?"

"Who are you, Bianca?" Perry took a sip. Leo frowned. He checked his watch.

"It's one am." Leo stated. He didn't get a significant reaction out of his son.

"Is there a problem?" Perry asked. He killed his drink.

"Something going on?"

"I'm fine, Dad." Perry assured. Leo frowned. "I just couldn't sleep?"

"Yeah, you couldn't sleep last night either." Leo noticed. Perry crossed his arms. He stared at the bottle of scotch, debating if he cared enough about his dad judgment as to not pour another. Perry decided he didn't. He poured.

"What would I have to complain about?" He kept the conversation going for pleasantries, but desperately wished for it to end.

"Apparently something worth drinking over." Leo said with concern.

"I'm just having a drink, don't read too much into it." Perry hoped. Leo ignored his request and joined him at the dinner table. "Why did I have a feeling you were going to do that?"

"I'm your father?"

"Like that's ever meant anyth-" Perry caught himself before mixed up his dads. "Sorry."

"No, it's okay. It'll probably take a bit to get used to everything." Leo understood. There was an awkward silence. Perry took a sip. "Want to tell me why you're drinking?"

"Am I not allowed to drink?" He replied, avoiding the question.

"No, it's just… I've never seen you drink." Perry snorted. "Son?"

"Nothing." Perry took a sip. Leo didn't buy it. Perry set down the glass and crossed his arms, almost to hug himself. Leo waited. "It's just something I do, okay?"

"Is it something you do a lot?" Leo inquired. Perry didn't answer. Leo sighed.

"Okay…"

"I'm fine, Dad."

"It's okay if you're n-" Perry clenched his jaw. "Son?"

"I said I'm fine." He finalized. Leo took a deep breath, trying to remain patient. Perry set the glass down. "Look, I just like having a few drinks before I go to bed, okay? Helps me sleep."

"Something keeping you up?"

"I've seen a lot of shit."

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"Not especially." He drank.

"Okay, well, know I'm always here if you ev-"

"I won't." Perry interrupted rudely. Leo stood up to go. Perry bit his lip. "Wait."

"Yeah?" Leo turned around, hopeful.

"Thank you." Perry got out. Leo sighed.

"Of course."

* * *

"So?" Wyatt asked excitedly.

"So what?" Chris corrected a typo.

"Um, the trial?" Wyatt waited impatiently. "What did they say?"

"Oh, right." Chris stopped typed. "They said I'd have their decision by the end of the week."

"I'm confused. You don't sound very enthusiastic or panicky." Wyatt worried.

"I have my defense at the end of the week and haven't slept in three days." Chris rubbed his eyes. "I can't really afford to think about it."

"Well, whatever their decision I'm here for you."

"Thanks." Chris smirked. "Oh, you here for me enough to bring me dinner?"

"Yeah, no problem. What do you want?"

"Chinese." He answered right away.

"Shitty Chinese food or China town Chinese food?"

"I'm pulling all-nighter hoping to eat my feelings, Wy, I'm sure I'll eat whatever you get." Chris ran the algorithm one more time. "Goddamn it."

"Extra sweet and sour sauce?" Wyatt assumed. Chris looked at it again groaned.

"Always… fuck." Chris squinted at the code. "Feel free to grab extra fortune cookies."

"On it." Wyatt accepted. He went to hang up. "Wait." Chris called out.

"Yeah?"

"Could you stop at the store and grab some chips, too?"

"Yeah. Cheddar Ruffles I'm guessing?"

"You know me so well." Chris acknowledged, he ate a gummy worm. "Ooh, also if you're going could you grab-"

"Sour Patch Kids and the prepackaged box of Krispe Kremes." Wyatt knew. "Am I missing anything?"

"How-"

"Not the first time we've done this, Chris." Wyatt reminded. Chris let out a nervous laugh. Wyatt rolled his eyes. He paused. "This isn't all for tonight, right?"

"If I say yes will it make you feel better?" Chris asked slowly.

"You're going to be so sick…" Wyatt warned.

"I'm prepping for my defense while waiting on a verdict for lab approval, my past life becoming corporeal, and finding out my hallucination is actually a real person." Chris justified.

"So I should grab Ben and Jerry's, too?" Wyatt deduced.

* * *

"What are you smiling about?" Perry sat up and yawned.

"As me how I spent my morning." Skye said excitedly. She climbed onto the bed.

"Spent? It's only-"

"It's one." Skye informed. Perry grabbed the clock. "You're allowed to sleep in here, relax?"

"Right." He set it back down. "So what did you do?"

"Piper and I went shopping." She smiled.

"Piper as in my mom?" Perry couldn't imagine them in the same room. Bianca nodded.

"On the way there she barely spoke to me." She admitted. " _But_ I got her to talk by the end? And then we had a blast when we shopped for you…"

"What was so significant about shopping for me?" Perry got up and stretched.

"I asked you to make a list of essentials."

"And I gave you one." He reached for his toes. Skye pulled it out to read. "Clothes-"

"Normal." He commented. She looked him in the eye for the next one.

"String cheese."

"It's the perfect portable snack?" He justified.

"It's above shoes." She judged.

"You don't need shoes to walk to the refrigerator?" Perry argued. She gave him a look. He shrugged. "I was hungry when I wrote it, okay?"

"Were you horny, too, because the next items are condoms, lube, and-"

"Would you us rather not use-"

" _I gave this list to your mother._ " Skye stressed. Perry thought of a silver lining.

"I mean she always told me to be safe?" He tried. She just continued.

"Shower stuff, shaving-"

"Again, normal." He deemed.

"The next twelve items are comic books." She stressed. He scoffed defensively.

"What, you're not curious what happened in Thor after-"

"Essentials." Skye reminded.

"I-"

"No." Skye pointed in a scolding manner. He pouted. She smirked. "I had to go to three different comic book stores."  
"Wait, but you got them all?" Perry ginned. He leaned back and enjoyed her nod. "You are amazing."

"I know." She smiled.

"Come here?" He hoped. She rolled her eyes and walked over.

"I love you." Perry reminded. He went in for a kiss and she gave him the cheek.

"Go brush your teeth." "Yes, ma'am."

* * *

"Have you talked to Chris?" Leo asked urgently.

"Which Chris?" Piper hesitated.

"Uh, Chris Chris." He described.

"New or old?"

"New." Leo specified. Piper squinted. "This future."

"Right..."

"So, have you? I can't get a hold of him?" Leo worried.

"Oh, Leo. You know how he gets. We send him a bunch of texts and called, but get no response." Piper said bitterly. She took it out the cucumber she was cutting. "All I need is a text saying 'I'm alive. Don't bother me anymore.' I mean is it that hard?"

"So he's in full lockdown."

"Wyatt went over there yesterday with enough crap food to feed a family of four and when he left he commented on how Chris hadn't showered since he last saw him." Piper summarized. Leo sighed. "Matt's been exiled because apparently him breathing was too distracting."

"Poor kid… plus, adding all the Bianca future stuff-"

"Yeah." Piper agreed. She tossed her salad and brought it to the table. "Speaking of, have you seen that one?"

"He isn't here?"

"Talking about me?" Perry walked in. He stopped to get the water out of his ear and then kept going. They heard a blow dryer turn on upstairs.

"Did you use my shower?" Piper checked. Perry froze. His face grew redder as she spoke. "Huh. Did you have any issue with the temperature? Usually when you shower at the same time-"

"Could I have some of that salad?" Chris diverted. He quickly served himself. "This is really g-"

"Anyways as I was say-"

"Piper." Leo cleared his throat and subtly shook his head no, warning her to stop. She frowned. Chris kept his eyes down and focused on lunch. Her eyes went wide.

"Do you have any plans for today?" Piper changed the subject.

"We were supposed to check out Alcatraz, but I overslept, so-"

"Why Alcatraz?" Leo wondered.

"Always wanted to go, but they reopened it before I had the chance." Perry shrugged. Piper frowned.

"You've never been?" Piper blurted. Perry shook his head no. "We took a day trip together… that's an odd thing to have changed."

"How old was I?" Perry asked, pretty sure he know why. _The energy ball flew across the room. She slammed against the wall and fell down the flight of stairs._ He nodded.

"Why?"

"We didn't do much together as family after my fourteenth birthday." He said solemnly.

"Why's that?" Leo pried. Perry clenched his jaw.

"That's when I died, isn't it?" Piper asked cautiously. Perry looked to the side.

"Yeah." _He sprinted over. It was too late._

"How-"

"Can we talk about something else, please?" He asked forcefully, hoping to get it out before his voice cracked.

"I'm right here, Chris." Piper went to comfort him. He moved out of the way.

* * *

"You have a twin brother?" Matt repeated, making sure he got it right. Chris nodded.

"Yeah. Apparently."

"Huh." Matt squinted. "No one told you?"

"Just found out."

"Why didn't they-"

"I don't know, Matt." Chris dipped a chip in queso. He checked his watch. Matt slowly removed the back of chips from his reach.

"There's nothing you can do while that's running, Chris." Matt reminded. "Chill?"

"I'm sorry, did you just tell _me_ to chill?" Chris stopped to question his best friend's sanity. "How long have you known me again?"

"It's going to take an hour whether you panic or not. At least try to enjoy the break?"

"I took a shower?" Chris tried.

"Yes, and we all appreciate that." Matt teased. Chris rolled his eyes. He forked the last bit of his burrito bowl. "So, what's he like?"

"I don't know. I met him for like ten minutes before the trials proposal."

"What's he look like?"

"What do you mean, he's my twin?"

"As in identical?" Matt made sure. Chris teetered his head.

"Aside from being like a bit lighter… yeah."

"Oh, shit, that must be weird."

"Yup." Chris couldn't agree more. He looked over at Matt's bowl. "Are you going to-"

"I will finish this strictly so you don't." Matt declared. Chris sat back. "I get that you're freaking out, but I swear to god if I see you keep eating I'm going to throw up."

"Can you go back to when you enabled this in college?" He dreamed.

"You asked me not to." Matt reminded.

"I had food poisoning when I said that." Chris discredited. He put a hand on his stomach and took a deep breath.  
"Still said it, and I will hold you to it." Matt finished his diet coke. Chris pouted and then checked his watch again. "Still have fifteen minutes. You should probably sleep."

"Between the amount of caffeine running through my body and my anxiety, I don't think I could if I tried." Chris crossed his arms. His phone buzzed. "Oh, fuck."

"What?"

"I never texted my mom back…" He realized. He attended to her 23 messages right away.

* * *

"What are you doing?" Piper opened the attic door to find Perry standing at the Book.

"Not much, just reading."

"You maybe want something a little lighter?" Piper teased. He gave her a look. "Or not… reading anything in particular?"

"When was the last time there was a demon attack here?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean your potion supplies are nonexistent which leads me to believe either you've been brewing a lot or not at all." Perry concluded.

"We maybe get a demon every few months… if that-"

"Am I happy here?" He wondered. She held her breath. _I almost killed me._ "Mom?"

"You've had your ups and downs." She admitted. He let out a humorless laugh. "You did nothing wrong, Chris. Mental health runs in the family and you picked a really stressful career and that on top of the flashbacks…"

"Are you happy?" He hoped.

"Yes." She promised. He waited. "I'm alive to see my beautiful children grow up in a beautiful safe world."

"Okay." Perry felt better. _His mom smiled and served him scrambled eggs._

"How are you doing?"

"What do you mean?" He asked, not too invested in the conversation.

"Your dad mentioned-"

"Oh my god." Perry rolled his eyes. Piper frowned. "Seriously? God, I have a drink before I go to bed and he's treating it like the end of the world…"

"From what he said it sounds like more than one." Piper continued.

"Is trying to relax a crime?" Perry countered. Piper folded her arms. "Look, Piper-"

"Piper? What happened to Mom?"  
"Fine, _Mom_." He corrected dramatically. "There's nothing to worry about? I'm an adult. I drink. Normal people do that. Why is this such a big deal?"

"You don't drink in this future and you never did in the past."

"I don't know about me now but I definitely did in the past…" He confessed.

"I think we would have noticed-"

"Not if it wasn't a problem?" He argued. She paused to consider his point.

* * *

"Hey, baby." Skye went to kiss Perry. He gave her the cheek.

"Did you tell my parents I have a drinking problem?"

"No. Why?" She frowned.

"So they are just paranoid?" He proposed. He took comfort in it.

"What are you talking about?"

"My dad is convinced I'm an alcoholic." Perry said. He needed to vent. "They're being-"

"To be fair, you don't exactly have healthy relationship with alc-"

"Can you just let me complain about my parents?" He requested. She stayed quiet. He sighed. "He told Piper, too."

"Do you know what put the idea in his head?"

"He's not the biggest night cap fan." Perry muttered. Skye nodded.

"Cap as in singular?" She doubted. She raised an eyebrow. He shied away. "It hasn't been singular in years, babe. Even before you went to the past… it's usually, what? 3? Did that jump since I last saw you?"

"4 or 5 since you died…" He admitted. "What?" She gave him a concerned look. "Chris?"

"Look, I'm not saying I don't drink a lot. I'm just saying I've been doing this for years and have been completely fine, it's not like I'm going to all of a sudden implode just because they noticed…"

"No, but this future is pretty nice and they might have healthier ways of coping." She said carefully.

"What's that supposed to mean?" He got defensive.

"Substance abuse norms were pretty relaxed at the end of the world, Chris. What's normal to us might be cause for concern here?" She shrugged. He scoffed. "Maybe going to talk to someone isn't a horrible idea?"

"I'm not an alcoholic, Bianca."

"I didn't say you were."

"You kind of implied it?"

"Shit happened to you, Chris, and you didn't have access to anything better to cope where we lived. Now you do. What's so wrong about taking advantage of that?"

"I'm coping just fine, thank you."

"Fine, fall asleep without drinking tonight." Skye challenged. Perry stayed quiet. "Yeah."

"I wouldn't even know where to start." He shrugged.

"The beginning." She advised. "With your dad."


	5. Chapter 2

A/N: I skipped over Graduation because the only thing more boring than listening to thousands of names being read as students get a diploma is reading it. This takes place a bit after the big day. Also just a heads up in case you haven't figured it out, italics are thoughts/flashbacks (flashbacks are Perry's thoughts)

* * *

 _"You know better than to bother me when I'm in a meeting." Leo shook his head._

 _"I know, bu… Mom always…" Chris whimpered. "I just-"_

 _"You're not the only one who lost her, Chris. The Power of Three is gone, the whole damn world is in chaos. Do you have any idea what-"_

 _"I'm scared." He admitted. "I'm really scared, Dad. I just need you to-"_

 _"Don't put me in this position, Chris. You know I can't do this right now… did you call your aunt?" Leo hoped. Chris looks down._

 _"No."_

 _"No?" Leo fumed. "And you called_ me _? You know she-"_

 _"I want it to be you." Chris confessed. "I want_ you _to be there when-"_

 _"You should know better than this…"_

 _"I'm sorry…" He dropped his head._

 _" You can't keep calling me over things so-"_ _Chris's head shot back up. Leo stopped at his son's sudden movement._

 _"Things so what?" Chris asked. Leo swallowed nervously. Chris waited to see what Leo would do. His patience ran out. "THING. SO. WHAT?"_

 _"Chris, I-"_

 _"What?" Chris shrugged. "Me dying again isn't a pressing enough of an issue for you?"_

 _"Chris, I-"_

 _"Sorry, next time there's a recurrence, if I live long enough for there to be one, I'll make sure it fits in your fucking calendar!" Chris sent Leo flying across the room. Leo crashed into the grandfather clock._

 _"Chris-"_

 _"No. Now, I know you've been ignoring my calls this week, so I don't know if you heard… but my scans didn't come back so clean this time." Chris informed._

 _"I know, Chris… I know… I heard…" Leo promised. It made it worse. Chris hit him again. Leo orbed out before he crashed again. He reappeared in front of his son. "But I can't go to the appointments with you… I'm so sorry…"_

 _"Sorry? Sorry's not going to cut it this time, Dad!" Chris yelled. Leo watched his son struggle to keep standing._

 _"Okay… enough, Chris, please, you need to calm down. You're going to get hurt." Leo warned. Chris hit him again. "I know you're mad at me, and you have every right to be, but-"_

 _"But what, Dad? What could_ possibly _come after that?" Chris didn't understand. "I'm your son. You're supposed to be there for me. You're supposed to help me get through this! You're supposed to-"_

 _"Chris, you don't have the strength for this right now."_

 _"Screw you." Chris hit him again. Leo blocked it._

 _"I want to be there for you. Chris. I do." Leo said, stopping Chris for a moment._

 _"Will you come with me to the appointment tomorrow?" Chris requested. Leo's heart broke. He let out a few tears. "You won't, will you?"_

 _"It's not that I don't want to… you know I can't, Chris."_

 _"If it was Wyatt you'd be able to." Chris knew._

 _"Son-"_

 _"You don't go tomorrow you don't get to call me that!" Chris kept attacking. The more he tried the weaker they got._

 _"Christopher, listen to me. You have to stop." Leo begged. "This could kill you."_

 _"Why do you care?"_

 _"What? Chris, I lov-"_

 _"Love me? You don't even know me!" Chris used what he had left to continue hitting Leo. Leo no longer needed to avoid his attempts. He could barely feel them. Chris tried regardless. "YOU DON'T KNOW ME!"_

 _"You have to stop this…. please… it's not safe." Leo begged. Paige orbed in, sensing her charge's pain. Chris kept attacking. Paige immediately wrapped her arms around the hysterical child._ _He tried orbing out, but couldn't._

 _"Hey. Hey. Hey, Chris? Hey. It's going to be okay. It's me. It's Paige."_

 _"Let me go!"_

 _"I need to you stop. Just… please… you need to stop… you need to stop." Paige held him tighter. Chris lashed out once more and then broke down. She helped guide him to the floor so he didn't just collapse. She kept him close. "It's going to be okay… It's going to be okay…"_

 _"I don't want to do this again." He sobbed. "I can't do this again."_

 _"Yes you can. And you will." Paige ordered. Chris sniffled._

 _"No, I can't… not without Mo-_

"You ready to go?" Skye interrupted. Perry blinked. He stared at the grandfather clock his father had crashed into only moments before. Skye frowned. "You okay? You look a little pale."

"I'm always pale. We can't all be perfectly tan like you, okay?" He joked, distracting from the cause. She laughed. He relaxed.

"Good, because we're going to be late."

"Are you sure you're okay with this?" Perry worried. Skye put on a fake smile.

"Why wouldn't I be?"

"Because of Wy-" She tensed at his mention. "You can stay home if you need to?"

"No. I want to do this." She assured him.

"It's okay if-"

"I want to meet the brother you told me about."

* * *

"Hurry up, you're going to be late." Matt checked his watch. Chris fumbled to get his clothes on the other side of the door way. He went to close his pants but couldn't.

"How is that even possible?" Chris complained. He took off those pants and tried another pair. They didn't button, but he got the zipper up. He decided to accept it and threw on a belt. His shirt covered the top portion anyways. He walked out. "Good?"

"I'd fuck you." Matt joked. Chris rolled his eyes. "Where are you guys going, anyways?"

"Italian restaurant."

"Classy." Matt approved. Chris stuffed his wallet in his back pocket and then searched for his keys. "Backpack."

"Thanks."

"So when do I finally get to meet her?" Matt planned. Chris gave him a look.

"We've been on one date, man. Chill."

"Which is basically a long term relationship for you."

"With that attitude, never."

"Fine, than I'm sticking with what I said before." Matt shrugged. "I don't think she exists."

"Name one other reason I would go out in public if not for a girl?" Chris countered.

"Comic Con."

"Do I look like I'm going to comic con?"

"Fair." Matt accepted. He walked over to kitchen and grabbed a donut. Chris gagged. Matt chuckled. "I warned you."

"I'm never doing that ever again." Chris vowed. Matt snorted. "I'm serious?"

"Yeah, okay."

"I graduated, okay? I'm done." Chris loved saying. "I might actually have the time to take care of my body now? Maybe, I don't know, lose some of the weight that this shit gave me?"

"I will support you in whatever you want so long as it doesn't impede on taco Tuesdays."

"I fully accept that." Chris took a deep breath. "I should probably head out."

"Yeah." Matt agreed. Chris nodded. Then he paused.

"Wait, what if-"

"Nope. No what ifs. There's no time, I'm not in the mood, and it'll do nothing but stress you out further." Matt pointed to the door. Chris anxiously followed orders.

* * *

"Piper." Skye held her very drunk fiancé from entering. "What are you doing up?

"Chris had a date tonight and I am here waiting for his inevitable panic after he drops her off." Piper explained. She sipped her coffee and then tilted her head. "Where's the other Chris? I thought you guy went out together?"

"He-" Skye cringed when she heard him throw up in the bushes. "Food poisoning?"

"Oh, no. Is he okay?" Piper immediately stood up to check on him. Skye blocked her way. He threw up again. Piper tried getting to him. Skye blocked her again.

"I've got him. Don't worry." She gave a very fake reassuring smile. Piper's phone started buzzing. She received six messages in a row. "Take care of your Chris, I'll take care of mine."

"Let me know if you need anything?" Piper worried. She got another message. Skye nodded. Piper went back inside and called her son. Skye closed the front door and went back to Perry, who was leaning over the railing in case he threw up again. He did. Skye rubbed his back and then quickly shimmered him upstairs to their bathroom. She stayed with him half way through the night until he finally sat back, finished. She forced him to drink a gatorade.

"Gross flavor." He complained.

"I don't really give a shit if you think it's gross. What's gross is me watching you vomit for the past hour." Skye brought the bottle back up to his mouth and made him drink it. Perry took it from her and did it himself. She sat back.

"Are you okay?" She asked. He swallowed.

"I don't think I'm going to throw up again?"

"That's not what I mean." Skye clarified. He waited. "Why would you drink that much, Chris?"

"I was having _fun._ "

"Well, are you having fun now?" She scolded.

"Not really…" He finished the sports drink. She wrapped his arm around her and leaned into him. He held onto her.

"Why did you actually drink that much, Chris?" She whispered.

"Everything we are, know… it didn't happen." He started. "I don't belong here, Bi."

"I'm going to go out on a limb and say your family might disagree?"

"They're not my family." He said, surprising her.

"What?"

"They're not the people I miss, Bi." He confessed. "They don't remember being my family…"

"Okay, um…" Skye stood up. She extended a hand to help him up. "Let's get you to bed. We'll talk in the morning, yeah?"

"Probably not." He said realistically. She lead him towards the bed.

* * *

"Dude, what the hell?" Chris jumped back. Matt ate his cereal a foot away from Chris's bed. He casually finished the last lucky charm. "Hello?"

"How was the date?"

"You're in my room." Chris stated. Matt looked side to side.

"Is anyone else?"

"Uh, no?" Chris sat up and grabbed his glasses from the side table. He yawned.

"Great, then spill. How was it?"

"She's amazing and I don't know why she would ever want to date me." He summarized.

"Reasonable analysis."

"Gee, thanks." Chris rolled his eyes. Matt drank the leftover milk in his bowl.

"Did you sleep together?"

"Uh, no?"

"That sucks."

"You know some people actually like taking their time and see sex not just as a physical activity." Chris reminded. Matt rolled his eyes. Then he snorted. Chris waited. "What?"

"That would make sense why you don't do hookups." Matt laughed at him. "You avoid physical activity like the plague…"

"Hey, I work out occasionally?"

"Chris, when was the last time you were in a gym?" Matt wondered.

"I was just-" He stopped to think back. "Okay, yeah, like three months ago."

"Exactly." Matt smirked. Chris stretched.

"I'm telling you. Now that I'm done, I'm going to try."

"I'll believe it when I see it." Matt said, not believing a word he heard. Chris sighed. He rubbed his eyes.

"I got taken off that one med that made me gain some of it? Might help?"

"Wait, what?" Matt frowned. "Chris, don't you need that medication for-"

"They switched it." He said. "Slightly stronger anxiety meds, less antipsychotic."

"Do I need to look out for changes?"

"Uh, yeah, actually I'd really appreciate that." Chris rubbed his eyes again. He yawned.

"If your social anxiety is fixed and you ditch me to go out more frequently I will report that as a negative side effect." Matt warned. Chris smiled and nodded. "I'm serious."

"Matt, no amount of medication would make me want to go out."

* * *

 _"Hello?" Chris calls out. No one's there. He returns to the book. He flips through the pages. The floor creeks again. He looks over at the toddler in the playpen. "Okay, it's time to get you outta here…"_

"Babe, wake up." Skye shook Perry's shoulder. Perry's fast twists in pain. _Chris is magically thrown across the attack, crashing into a wooden table. Gideon appears by Wyatt. He looks over his shoulder at Chris._

"You're having a nightmare." Skye said, hoping to get through. He winced.

 _"Don't make me sacrifice you both." Gideon threatens. He turns back to pick up Wyatt. Chris telekinetically throws Gideon, who makes an athame appear. He vanishes._

"Chris, come on. You need to wake up, now." Skye tried again. Perry tossed and turned. _Chris rushes toward Wyatt. Suddenly, Gideon appears next to Chris and stabs him in the stomach. Chris falls to his knees._ Perry cried. Skye shouted.

"Wake up!" Perry gasped awake. He pushed to seated. He shut his eyes and took calming breaths. He sniffled. Skye gave him some space before proceeding."Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." He lied. Once the adrenaline wore off, he wanted to change his answer. His stomach churned and his head throbbed. He groaned. "Oh, maybe not… Why do I feel like I got hit by a bus?"

"You insisted we go barhopping after dinner, remember?"

"Yes? And…. that was a great call. We had a ton of fun." He claimed.

"Really? Do you remember the fun part when you threw up on me?" She asked, feeling salty. He cringed.

"If I say no will you be more or less mad at me?"

"You're really lucky you're cute, you know that?" She replied. He smiled.

"Did Wyatt have fun?" Perry hoped.

"Yeah, I think so." Skye smirked. "I think he was a bit confused at first, though. I don't think you go out much here…"

"Yeah, I don't think I'd be friends with me in this world." He realized. "I'm like… smart in a nerdy anti social way here…"

"You have to admit it's kind of cute, though?" Skye admitted.

"Excuse you?"

"You're just so innocent here. It's adorable."

"Wow, slutty jaded piece of shit over here needs love, too?" He muttered, and then gave her puppy dog eyes until she gave in. She moved over to cradle him as the little spoon. He relaxed into it. "I love you."

"God, you're needy…" She teased. He happily pulled her arm to hold him tighter.

"Do you think we have that in common?" He wondered. She giggled.

"Well, you're both neurotic and high maintenance, that's for sure…"

"I'm not high maintenance." He claimed. She rolled her eyes.

"You had more toiletries on your list than I did."

* * *

"How was you're night with the newcomers?" Chris wondered.

"I haven't gotten out of bed yet." Wyatt summarized. Chris frowned.

"I thought you went for Mexican?"

"Yeah, we did… and then we did a bar crawl."

"I went on a bar crawl?" Chris paused his video game. He shuddered at the thought. "Ew. So what's he like?"

"You mean compared to you?" Wyatt thought back. "Uh, I don't know… you like think in similar ways and have similar mannerisms but, you know, you've been through different things… he's a little less science geek, little more trauma. Definitely has some issues…"

"Huh." Chris thought about it. "I don't know if I'm going to like him."

"How was your date?" Wyatt redirected before his brother over analyzed.

"Good, I think?"

"Did you text her yet?"

"Wait. Am I supposed to?"

"Yeah, usually." Wyatt rolled his eyes. Chris put his phone on speaker so he could text. He hesitated.

"What exactly am I supposed to say?"

"I don't know, some less generic version of thanks I had a good time do you want to go out again?" Wyatt suggested. Chris tilted his head head and thought about it for a minute. "You still there?"

"Yeah, sorry." Chris typed the message and pressed send. "Okay, I sent it."

"Good."

"Yeah… now what?" Chris asked nervously. He watched the three dots dancing as she replied. Every time they went up and down his anxiety heightened. "Okay this is the part where you're the cool big brother and help."

"Are you twelve?"

"Reminder. I've only done this like twice in my entire life." Chris rationalized. He phone buzzed. "She responded."

"Damn, that fast." Wyatt nodded in approval. "I think she likes you. What'd she say?"

"She asked if I wanted to grab coffee?" Chris read.

"As in right now?"

"Maybe?"

"What are you doing still talking to me?"

* * *

Perry switched the channel, growing increasingly frustrated. He momentarily gave up and took a sip of water. He flipped back to the first channel to see if anything had changed. He looked down at his notebook and crossed off a name. He fact checked with the other news. He rewrote the name. He went back to make sure he heard it right. He drew a cause and effect arrow. He looked back up at the screen and reversed it.

"Heard our date went well." Skye greeted. She joined Perry on the couch.

"What the hell?" He ignored her, still focused on his flowchart. Skye waved a hand in front of his face.

"Chris?"

"Sorry, what?" He snapped out of it. Skye smiled and tried again.

"Did you here what I said?" She hoped. He shook no. "Our date went well last night."

"Oh. Good. We look good together." He put his arm around her and then chuckled. "Even with your new hair."

"Hey, I like it." She replied defensively. He kissed the top of her head.

"Never said I didn't."

"What are you watching, anyways?" Skye turned up the volume.

"I was watching the news." Perry regretted. "I'm trying to catch up on current events, but it's just pissing me off."

"Is it better than the propaganda Wyatt streamed?"

"Just barely." Perry deemed. "At least I _knew_ that was fake. I have no idea what's happening in the world right now because depending on the news channel I go to the complete opposite thing is destroying the world? Everyone's complaining about a person the other news channel is convinced will save them."

"What?"

"Yeah. Apparently everything is the presidents fault, but if you go to the channel with the blue ties it's the last administration but the blue people blame the current one… and then there are things that just don't add up? Like both are lying but lying with different lies? I have no idea what's happening." His head hurt.

"It doesn't matter. We're undocumented citizens." She turned it off. "We can't vote. Let's go do something less miserable."

"Like what?"

"Walk?"

"Okay." Perry stood up and stretched. They were half way out the door before something occurred to him. "Wait. Are you going to make me talk about my feelings?"

"Yeah."

"What happened to less miserable?" He muttered. She smiled mischievously.

* * *

"Was this too soon?' Bianca blurted. Chris looked up from his coffee.

"What do you mean?" He worried back.

"Us. Should we have like waited a day before we saw each other again?"

"Oh. Uh. I- Did you want me to leave?" His brain went straight to panic mode. "I don't wan- I guess- uh, I mean I could-"

"No!" She made sure. He calmed down. "I just wasn't sure about- I'm- never mind…"

"Is that a-"

"Stay? Please?" She finally communicated.

"Okay." Chris set his drink down. There was an awkward silence. She smiled nervously. He shrugged. "So what did you-"

"I don't do this very often." She confessed. "I mean, I'd like to, and I'm not afraid of anything I just- I never really- it's just it doesn't really- um- I've never really done this before and-"

"Ramble adorably or go on coffee dates?" He interrupted.

"Coffee dates…. or, dates in general…" She confessed. He burst out laughing. "That's not supposed to be funny? Why is that funny? Why are you laughing?"

"No, no, I'm not laughing at you. I promise. I just-" He tried to stop laughing. He couldn't. He took a deep breath. "Sorry, it just- that's really refreshing because neither have I."

"So you also don't know how to do this either?"

"I have no clue." He admitted. She relaxed. "I like it though?"

"Yeah, me too." Bianca agreed. She took a sip of her mocha. He started laughing again. She swabbed a bit of whipped cream and placed it on his nose just for being annoying. He tried leaning his head forwards and get it with his tongue. She giggled at his futile efforts. He eventually gave up and used his finger. Bianca smiled at him. He smiled back. He leaned in to kiss her.

" _Dr_. Halliwell, is that you?" Someone teased. Chris sat back immediately.

"Matt… hi… what are you doing here?" Chris tried to distract from having to introduce Bianca as a label they hadn't defined yet. Matt took a bite out of his macaroon.

"Meeting Dr Barr-" He stopped chewing to stare at Bianca. She waved. Chris cleared his throat to break Matt's shock. "What are you?"

"Wow, uh, Matt, this is Bianca." Chris introduced. "Bianca this is Matt."

"Best friend." Matt put out a hand. Bianca wasn't sure how to respond.

"Uh, coffee date?" She went with and shook his hand. Matt looked at Chris confused.

"Wait, this is-"

"Yeah." Chris confirmed. Matt's eye brows went up. He looked at Bianca.

"Why are you dating him?" Matt wondered aloud. Chris blushed.

"Did you say you have a meeting?" Chris forcefully reminded, giving him a look that screamed to leave. Matt grinned. Chris checked his wrist for the time even though he wasn't wearing a watch. "Nowish?"

"Yeah." Matt bowed out. Chris exhaled slowly.

"Sorry about that…" He apologized. She shrugged.

"No worries." Bianca assured. "He seems… nice?"

"Yeah… he's… currently processing that the girl I said I went on a date with a) actually exists and b) is someone like you." Chris explained. She gave him a look.

"Someone like me?"

"Yeah, you know… super out of my league?" He joked. She shook her head.

"You don't give yourself enough credit, Halliwell." She took a sip. "Sorry. _Dr._ Halliwell."

"Oh, hearing that is never going to get old." He took a deep breath and enjoyed it.

"Congratulations, again." Bianca wished. He nodded.

"Thank you."


	6. Chapter 3

hope you enjoy! Don't forget to review and let me know what you think!

* * *

"I don't like this." Chris broke the three-minute silence. Perry agreed. They kept staring at each other. Chris sat back. "So, you're like… me, but not?"

"Technically you're me, but not?"

"But it's my timeline?" Chris argued. Perry felt very invalidated.

"Yeah, but your timeline wouldn't have existed without me." He brought up, feeling possessive of his selfness. Chris squinted. Perry continued. "Without me coming back you would have just been me."

"So then are we the same person?" Chris theorized. Perry considered it.

"I don't know… I mean we had two different souls." Perry bit his lip. "I might be a past life?"

"Let's stick with that or my heads going to explode."

"Aren't you supposed to be the smart one?" Perry teased. Chris didn't find it very funny. Perry backed off. "Sorry."

"It's fine." Chris picked at his chips. Chris couldn't let it go. "But like how much of us is the same?"

"I don't know." Perry crossed his arms and leaned back. "Possibly nothing? I mean, you could theoretically just be another sibling."

"Except we have the same genes." Chris reminded. "So like… twins?"

"Maybe? I kind of messed up our conception time line. We could also be different?"

"We're identical." Chris immediately discredited Perry's theory.

"You weren't sick as kid? If we were the same you would have been sick."

"Identical twins don't always-"

"I'm just trying to come up with shit, okay? Theories are theories for a reason."

"I think I like the long lost twin theory the best." Chris decided for them. "I mean, if we're the same but had different childhoods…?"

"So then are we the same non-genetically at all?"

"What do you order at Chinese restaurants?" Chris interrogated.

"What?"

"Just answer the question."

"Sweet and sour chicken." Perry answered. "You?"

"Same…" Chris said. He grew increasingly uncomfortable. "Okay, I think the best way we can do this is take a personality test and see if we get the same answer."

"Like on Buzzfeed?"

"Myers-Briggs." Chris corrected. Perry gave him a blank stare. "We could do both?"

* * *

"What do you think they're doing?" Bianca asked Skye. Skye laughed.

"Probably overanalyzing everything and getting stressed out." She imagined. Bianca smirked. She took a break from painting her nails.

"So what's he like?" She wondered. Skye blew on her nails to help them dry. She stopped to answer.

"Who? Chris?" She made sure. Bianca nodded. Skye smiled to herself. Bianca thought it was cute. "I don't know if they're the same person."

"Okay, then what's your Chris like?"

"Neurotic and kind of bitchy." She joked, making Bianca chuckle. "Nah, he's great. He's a really good person."

"How so?"

"He turned me in a world where Evil had the upper hand." Skye explained.

"Turned you?" Bianca frowned.

"Let's just say I didn't major in Education." Skye shared. Bianca nodded in understanding. "How did we end up going to college anyways?"

"What do you mean?"

"I just- Even before Wyatt took over, Mom started training me when I was six?" Skye thought back. "I started taking jobs at twelve, school was hardly enough of a priority to-"

"Twelve?" Bianca gasped. Skye shrugged, no thinking anything of it. "Mom wouldn't even let me in the Underworld until I was sixteen."

"What?" _One day when I ask you what it's like to kill? Don't lie to me._

"I mean we trained, but she didn't let me start until I was old enough to understand what it meant to-" _Don't tell me you don't feel a thing._

"She listened to me?"

* * *

"INTJ." Perry turned the screen to Chris. "What are you?"

"INTJ." Chris confirmed. Perry looked back at the results. "Kind of makes sense?"

"Does it? I don't really know what this means." Perry admitted. Chris rolled his eyes.

"Did you read the description?"

"No, not yet…" Perry ran a hand through his hair and started. He scrolled down. "Okay, this is kind of freaking me out."

"What, why?" Chris looked up from his screen.

"How does it know me like this?"

"Oh, yeah, it's pretty creepy." Chris went back to his quiz. "Alright, I designed the room, and apparently I'm supposed to take a trip to Scotland?"

"Paris." Perry recalled. "Did you take the what kind of potato form are you one yet?"

"Home fries."

"Potato chips." Perry crossed his arms. Chris looked down at the chip he was about to eat and then back at the potato chip man. Perry seemed oblivious to Chris's moral struggle. "Okay, so what I'm getting is that we're not the same person?"

"Except for the majority of our mental framework." Chris reminded. He decided to eat the chip. "Honestly, you actually might just be what I look like without college and social anxiety…"

"Nature vs nurture, go." Perry challenged. Chris gave him a look.

"Are you serious?"

"What?"

"It's a dumb question." Chris mocked. "Our existence literally answers the question."

"Fine…" Perry thought of another one. Chris rolled his eyes. "Chicken or the egg?"

"The egg had to come first." He muttered, getting annoyed with Perry's questions.

"What made the egg then?"

"Random genetic mutations." Chris replied. Perry scoffed. "Alright, Trolley Dilemma. Go."

"What dilemma?"

"Would you move the train and kill one or let the train go and kill five?" Chris explained with a patronizing tone. Perry nodded. "It's kind of famous-"

"Right." Perry cleared his throat. There was an awkward silence. "Greater good says to kill one… if that one's family, though… I'd probably let five die."

"Same." Chris respected. Perry sniffled.

"Do you have an inferiority complex with Wy?" Perry tried.

"No. Why would I?" Chris scratched his cheek. Perry blushed.

"No reason." He quickly moved on. "Can you cook?"

"Only with a very detailed recipe." Chris specified.

"Yeah, same…" Perry ran a hand through his hair.

"How do you deal with stress?" Chris wondered.

"To quote Bianca, very maladaptive-ly."

"Okay. So what i'm getting is we're basically we're both analytical goal oriented assholes with self-destructive coping mechanisms?" Chris summarized. Perry nodded slowly.

"Yes." He concurred. Perry thought about what life without being sick could have been like. "Did you ever play a sport?"

"Three season varsity-athlete." Chris said. Perry looked impressed. Chris gave him a look. "Seriously? Do I look like I've ever played a sport?"

"Okay, wow. Sorry… well, I also did not, so…" Perry muttered. Chris rolled his eyes. Perry observed the exchange. "Huh. Interesting."

"What?"

"We're definitely both stubborn…" Perry acknowledged.

"I"m not stubborn." Chris retorted stubbornly. Perry snorted.

"Yeah, okay..." He mocked. Chris scoffed.

"Excuse you? How would you even know? You've known me for like five minutes? You can't make a judgement call like-"

"You're literally being defensive and stubborn right now." Perry pointed out.

"Uh, no, I'm not?" Chris claimed.

"Then why are we having this discussion?"

"Because I'm right and you're trying to accuse me of something I'm not?" Chris argued.

"Funny thing about being stubborn is that you always _think_ you're right." Perry said.

"Okay, but it's not being stubborn if you're actually correct the vast majority of the time. It's just being rational." Chris continued. Perry held his amusement. Piper walked in to grab an apple. "Mom?"

"Yeah, sweetie?"

"Will you please tell him I'm not stubborn?"

"Oh, uh-" Piper froze. "Peanut, I love you, but…"

"This is bullshit." Chris decided. He went back to eating his chips. Perry laughed.

"Dude, just admit your stubborn." Perry stole one of Chris's chips.

"I saw that… and you know, I'm a pretty reasonable person, okay? I am happy to hear the other side…" Chris said. Piper tilted her head. "Granted the argument is an intelligible one?"

"Uh huh." Perry mocked.

"Assuming that I'm right isn't being stubborn if there are statistically insignificant moments in which I'm wrong." He repeated.

"Oh, boy, this is going to be fun…" Piper took a calming breath in response to their bickering.

"I finally get what Bianca has been saying all this time…" Perry muttered. He ignored the rant Chris decided to go on and instead thought back through his and Bianca's slew of arguments. He inhaled sharply. "Fuck, I really need to apologize…"

"Are you even listening to me?" Chris yelled. Perry made eye contact. "Did you hear _anything_ I-"

"Okay, stop!" Piper begged. They both looked at her. "Chris, just admit you're stubborn."

"I-"

"You wouldn't have gotten through the last few years if you weren't." She said, giving him his required evidence based argument. Chris took a calming breath.

"Fine." He muttered. Perry bowed.

"Don't. You're just as stubborn, young man." Piper scolded. Perry gave her an offended look.

"What? I-" He bit his tongue.

"Good." Piper calmed down. "Now, knowing that you're both equally as stubborn- and will not ever let the other ever win- the only way this is going to end is dropping it now or me blowing both of you up."

"Yeah." "Okay." They both agreed.

"Good." She bit into her apple on the way out.

"Way to upset her." Chris blamed. He ate the last chip. Perry just stared in disbelief.

* * *

"How do you deal with me?" Perry wondered aloud. Skye laughed. He flopped back onto the bed. "I'm insufferable…"

"I'm guessing your one on one didn't go so great?" Skye replied.

"He's such an asshole." He complained. "And _so_ stubborn…"

"So you are the same person?" Skye joined him on the bed. She snuggled up to him. He swallowed nervously.

"Am I really that bad?" Perry worried. Skye sighed.

"Depends on what we're discussing."

"I'm so sorry…" Perry rubbed his eyes. "He's super pretentious, too. Like 'Hi, I have my doctorate, and you're an uneducated piece of shit, how can I make you feel stupid?'"

"Babe-"

"No, fuck that. I'm really smart. I could have done that, too? It's not my fault the public school system had already fallen apart by the time I got to high school." Perry ranted.

"Babe?"

"He's such a…" Perry continued. He groaned. He sat up. Skye tried one more time.

"Chris?"

"What?"

"Don't you think you're being a little harsh?" She asked carefully.

"No." He shot down stubbornly. Skye took a deep breath.

"So, there's _no_ chance that this is you projecting your own insecurities onto him?" She psychoanalyzed. He shook his head. Skye rolled her eyes. "None at all?"

"I mean…" Perry sat up. She sat up, too. He cringed. "Absolutes are kind of-"

"Chris, seriously?" Skye snapped. Perry looked to the side in shame.

"Fine. Maybe... He's just… I don't know. He has everything I've ever wanted… _Is_ everything I…" Perry looked down. He took a deep breath. He shrugged. "He got to grow up in this beautiful safe world with loving parents, and he never had to worry about- he just got a normal life, Bi, he got to dream. He got to dream and I… he's just a better me."

* * *

"So? What'd you think?" Wyatt asked excitedly. Chris pouted.

"I don't like him." He said. Wyatt sighed.

"What don't you like about him?" He prompted. Chris shrugged.

"I don't know? He was just… judge-y." Chris complained.

"Judge-y?"

"Yeah. He sat there and compared me to whatever the fuck he had imagined his perfect life looking like and it was very apparent that he didn't like what he saw." Chris ranted. He worked himself up. "He was-"

"Chris-"

"I might cure cancer." Chris bragged. "I might cure cancer, and I wasn't good enough."

"Okay, I really don't think-"

"No, Wy. He was clearly disappointed!" Chris yelled. He started pacing anxiously. Wyatt bit his lip. "I just wasn't good enough…"

"What makes you think he was disappointed?" Wyatt asked, trying to get to the root of the problem. Chris laughed.

"I told him all about what I had done and was doing and he sat there looking at me like I had three heads… like I had wasted the life he so graciously gave me. He belittled everything I've ever cared about…" Chris shrugged. "You know, like… he's me, Wy. There's no denying that we are at the root the same person… but we are… he fought day in and day out to just stay alive, and I… got lucky. He gave me the perfect life… He gave me everything and all I have ever done is _complain_ about it… I- he saved the world. How am I supposed to compete with that? I-he's a better person that I am, Wy. He's just- I don't deserve-"

"Come here." Wyatt pulled his brother into a hug. Chris shook.

"Do you think Mom and Dad are disappointed in me?"

"No." Wyatt promised. "God, they are so proud of you, Chris… you have nothing to worry about."

* * *

"Skye." Piper stopped washing the dishes. Skye carefully entered the kitchen. She bit her lip. "Want to tell me what's-"

"Can you talk to Chris?"

"Which one?" Piper dried her hands on the dish towel.

"Mine?" Skye specified.

"Something wrong?" Piper frowned. Skye looked to the side. Piper went into panic mode. "Skye? Did something happen to my son?"

"I think it'd be best if you just talked to him." Skye said. "It's really not my place to-"

"Yes, it is. It's my place. I'm making it yours. What's going on?"

"I just…" Skye played with the end of her sleeve. Talking about his feelings, and how he would respond if he ever knew, made even her nervous. "He…"

"Should I be concerned?" Piper worried.

"Would I be here if you shouldn't?" Skye reminded. Piper sighed.

"Did he say something to you?" Piper asked. Skye nodded. She shrugged.

"He said he didn't belong here?" Skye said. Wyatt walked in.

"Hey, Ma, can I- Skye…" Wyatt redirected his mission. Skye's heart raced at the face of her killer. Wyatt tried smiling at her. She did her best not to cry. Wyatt turned to his mom. "Could I talk to you?"

"Well actually, we're kind of in the middle of-" Piper stopped at her son's sense of urgency. "Did something happen?"

"Um." Wyatt glanced over at Skye. She got the hint.

"I'll let you guys talk."

"Wait, no, sweetie-" Piper cursed when she left. She looked up at Wyatt. "This better be important."

"It's Chris…" Wyatt prepared. Piper held her breath. "I think you should talk to him."

"What about?"

"I think it'd be best if you just talked to him?" He said.

"What's going on?"

"I just…" Wyatt struggled to break his vow of confidence. "He-"

"Should I be concerned?" Piper needed to know. Wyatt shifted his weight to the other foot. Piper raised an eyebrow.

"Would I be here if you shouldn't?"

"Did he say something to you?" Piper asked. Wyatt teetered his head. "What did he say?"

"After meeting Ch- Perry… kind of second guessing everything?" Wyatt tried.

"Like what?"

"Like where he fits into all of this? Whether he belong-"

"Oh, for Peet's sake… CHRIS!" Piper gave up. Both sons reported for duty.

"Yeah, Mom?" They asked. They looked at each other.

"Right…" Perry bowed out, remembering his alias.

"Stay." Piper ordered. They waited. "Both of you, sit."

"Yeah." They agreed. Skye peaked back into the room. Piper stood on the other side of the island. They both anxiously ran a hand through their hair. Chris paused half way through, realizing Perry was doing the same thing. He put his hand down and picked at his cuticles.

"I need you both to listen very carefully." Piper prefaced. They stopped fidgeting. "You are both my son and you both belong here and so help me god if you _ever_ question that… I love both of you and I am _proud_ to-"

"Just stop." Perry stood up to go.

"Excuse me?" Piper crossed her arms.

"Stop lying." Perry said a bit louder this time. "I don't belong here and you know it."

"Chris-" She didn't know what to say.

"That is your son." He pointed at Chris. "That is the person you love and raised."

"I love you, t-"

"Love me? Piper, you barely know me. We spent two years together and you spent most of it hating my guts." Perry reminded. They didn't want to admit he was right. "Don't tell me that makes me the same as someone you've spent twenty something years with… that just offensive, because either you think I'm stupid to believe you or desperate enough to ignore your lie… I'm not your son. I'm just some neurotic POS white lighter that came in and-"

"Christopher Perry Halliwell, don't you-"

"No. You don't have that right."

"Babe?" Skye walked over to console him. Perry ignored her. He stayed locked on Piper.

"The _only_ person allowed to use my full name like- _you_ don't… You don't get to just pretend you're my-"

"Mother?" Piper finished. He stopped. She waited. Skye grabbed Perry's hand. He squeezed it for strength. "Do you not see me as your mother?"

"I…" He struggled.

"Oh." Piper's heart broke. She tucked her hair behind her ear and tried to grasp it.

"I'm sorry."

"What changed?"

"Do you remember what you said when you tucked me in the night of my sixth birthday?" Perry asked.

"Sweet dreams?" She guessed, hating that she didn't know. He shook his head.

"No." He corrected sadly. She winced. "No, you said nothing. You said nothing because you didn't tuck me in that night. You let me stay up until Dad to came down to wish me a happy birthday… You knew he wouldn't come, but you figured I'd just fall asleep and you just could tell me Dad didn't want to wake me up… You'd give me a present you had bought for him and convince me he wanted nothing more than to have been there…"

"Babe-" Skye tried to interrupt before he got too emotionally invested in the memory. He committed regardless.

"You had always let me believe he was just busy. You'd promise me he would orb down as soon as he could. So that year I vowed I wouldn't fall asleep, because I knew how much he wanted to see me and I didn't want him to be sad he missed the party." Perry explained. He wiped a tear.

"Chris-"

"You came down to make coffee the next morning you found me still awake, sitting there at the kitchen table in the clothes I wore at my party and with a slice of cake I saved for him."

"You were up all night?" Piper sighed.

"Yeah." Perry remembered vividly. Skye rubbed his arm. "And then you tried to get me to go to bed, but I said I wouldn't do it because I knew how bad he always felt about missing my day and that I wanted to be up so I celebrate with him and tell him it was okay, that I had waited up just for him… I was so stubborn… the only way you could get me to sleep was finally admitting he wasn't coming. And if you can't remember what you promised after, then you're not my- I appreciate what you're trying to do for me, but I already had a mom. A _really good_ one. And I lost her on my fourteenth birthday and you cannot replac-"

"Okay." She accepted. He hesitated, expecting a much different response. "Just, uh, if I'm not mom to you in this future, who am I?"

"I don't know yet." Perry confessed.


	7. Chapter 4

A/N: Thanks for sticking with it! Just a heads up, this is a longer chapter. I liked the cut off best here :)

* * *

"I think he's having a hard time accepting mom. Freaked out with her yesterday… I don't know. He seems fine with Dad, though… I think he'd just… I don't know." Chris gave up. He leaned back in his chair. Matt nodded slowly.

"Have you talked to him at all?" He hoped.

"Not really." Chris bit and pulled on a sour gummy worm.

"Think you should?" Matt nudged. Chris didn't understand. He shrugged.

"Why would I?" Chris asked innocently. He got a new worm. Matt inhaled sharply. His patience was running thin. Matt tried again. He spoke as clearly and patiently as he could.

"…to make sure he's okay?"

"Right…" Chris yawned. "I don't know. That's a lot of… seems messy. And I really doubt _I'm_ the person he wants to talk to about this. I should probably just stay out-"

"Chris."

"I'm pretty sure he sees me as a privileged little fuck boy." He continued. He really didn't want Matt to be right. "Plus, I don't know anything about his life. How am I supposed to understand his dead mom issues? I'm not exactly good at the people thing. I don't do the social thing. Feelings are-"

"Did your mom ever say why they gave him up?" Matt interrupted. Chris grabbed another gummy and chewed longer than usual to buy some time. Matt waited. Chris thought of a believable excuse.

"Never said." Chris defaulted. He threw the last candy in his mouth and then double checked there weren't any left in the bag. His phone dinged. He ignored it. Matt looked over at the phone. Chris didn't pay any attention to it.

"Aren't you going to reply?" Matt gestured towards Chris's phone.

"Oh. It's probably just Bianca." Chris brushed off. Matt gave him a look. Chris returned a clueless one. "What? Why do you keep looking at me like that?"

"Because you're being an asshole."

"I told you I'm really not feeling the social thing."

"You have to text her back, Chris."

"Uh, no? If I text her back she's going to want to keep talking." He said.

"Yeah, that's the point." Matt said. Chris stood up to throw out the empty bag.

"I'm exhausted." Chris justified. He stretched. "I've had a really rough day, okay? It's been a lot of emotions. Very… I can't do the communication thing right now."

"I don't know what you want me to tell you, Chris. Communication is kind of important in relationships whether you're tired and have commitment issues or not."

"This is not a commitment issue." Chris claimed. Matt crossed his arms.

"Yeah? Is that why you're refusing to commit to texting her back?"

"We talked yesterday?" Chris whined. Matt rubbed his eyes.

"Oh my god, Chris." Matt didn't know what to do. Chris's phone dinged again. He cursed. Matt shrugged. "She's going to think you don't like her anymore."

"That's ridiculous." Chris argued.

"Chris, if you want her to be your girlfriend-"

"It's not like I'm never going to text her back." Chris said to defend his actions. Matt waited. "I just… I'm in a bad mood, if I text her I might be an asshole? I'll just text her back later?"

"No, you're not." Matt responded. He sighed. "You're either going to forget like you always do or not feel in the mood to talk and pretend to forget it."

"What? No I won't."

"Suck it up and text her back. You can't 3-5 business days this one."

"3-5 huh?"

"Your typical text turn around for people who aren't… just your typical text turn around. You should really work on that."

"I don't do that." Chris claimed. Matt sighed again. "You make me sound like-"

"Did you even ever text your mom back?" Matt muttered. Chris scoffed.

"Yeah, of-" He stopped. Matt gave him a disappointed look. Chris put his face in his hands. "Fuck."

"Yup."

"Okay, fine. I'll respond." Chris picked up his phone. He hesitated. "I'm really not in the mood to be social right n-"

"Oh my god. Would you just text her back?" Matt snapped.

"We're about to watch a movie and I don't want to-"

"Do it now." Matt ordered. Chris responded.

* * *

"Hey, I'm making tea." Piper naively opened her son's door. "Did you guys want-"

"Mom!" Perry panicked and got off Skye. She pulled the sheet up to cover herself. "Oh, fuck…"

"Oh my god!" Piper immediately closed the door. They scrambled to find clothes. Perry straightened out his shirt and reopened the door. She couldn't blink.

"What's up?" He asked. He tried to play it off casually. Piper remained speechless. She noticed he was a bit sweaty. It deeply disturbed her. He coughed. "Ma?"

"Huh?"

"You asked about-"

"Right…" She tried to snap out of it. He waited in an uncomfortable silence.

"Something about tea?"

"Tea? Tea… right. Did you want any?"

"I'll take one." He requested. "Bi?"

"I'm good." She called from the bathroom.

"Okay…" Piper took a deep breath. Perry looked back at Skye impatiently. Piper cleared her throat. He turned his head. "We should probably go over some house rules."

"Alternatively, we could pretend that this didn't just happen." Perry proposed. Piper gave him a look. "O- or you could just ground me? Perhaps a 24 no orbing spell or-"

"We're talking about it over tea." She said firmly. He cursed under his breath. She caught him. "Excuse me?"

"Sorry." He looked down in shame as he had so many times before growing up.

"I'll meet you downstairs." She shook her head.

"Yeah." He scratched the back of his head.

"And I expect you to shower first."

"Will do…"

" _Separately._ " She added. He cringed. He closed the door and took calming breaths.

"You okay?" Skye walked over. He let out a nervous laugh. "So you're good?"

"I never thought there would be an upside to having a dead mom, but avoiding _that_ might just be one." He replied. She kissed him to help. "I'll never be able to look her in the eye again?"

"You're being a bit dramatic, don't you think?" She gave him a look.

" _MY MOM JUST WALKED IN ON US!_ " He reminded loudly. Piper stopped walking down the stairs. She couldn't help but smirk at the word mom.

* * *

"It's not that I don't like her. I do. I really do… but… I don't get why we have to talk all the time. It's… not practical for everyday living. Like who has time for this?" Chris complained over brunch. Wyatt drowned his pancakes in syrup. "Besides, I don't talk with my other friends everyday? I don't even talk to Matt everyday, and I live with him?"

"I know it's hard for you to understand, but some people actually enjoy human interaction." Wyatt said. He put the syrup back on the table. Chris picked at his food. "Look, I don't know what to tell you. Relationships require emotional labor."

"Apparently a lot." Chris took a bite. His phone buzzed. He groaned. "All day. Everyday."

"You realize this means she likes you, right?" Wyatt checked. "Like, _really_ likes you?"

"I really like her, too? I just… I need some space?"

"To do what exactly? You graduated and you can't start trials yet. All you have is free time? What else are you doing?" Wyatt judged. Chris scratched his cheek. _Nothing?_

"I mean-"

"You're being an asshole."

"Hey, I'm responding." Chris argued. "Very politely and in full sentences, may I add."

"I don't believe you. Give me your phone." Wyatt held a hand out.

"What? No." Chris denied possessively. Wyatt gave him a look. Chris handed it over. Wyatt read through some of the conversation.

"Okay, this is actually not bad." Wyatt admitted.

"Yeah, because I really like her." Chris said. Wyatt gave it back.

"You should probably respond to that one."

"Huh?" Chris read the previewed text. "Oh, fuck, she wants to come over later."

"Why do you make that sound like a bad thing?"

"I live with _Matt._ " Chris reminded. "There hasn't been a girl in our apartment in like four years. Even Mel doesn't like coming over because he tries hitting on her and it makes me uncomfortable?"

"Don't you mean it makes her uncomfortable?"

"What? No, she ignores it. I think it's weird." Chris said. He thought for a moment. "Is it rude if I ask to go there instead?"

"I have an idea. Why don't you just ask Matt to not be in the room with you guys?" Wyatt proposed. Chris went to knock it down and then bit his lip.

"That's actually not an awful idea." He admitted. He called Matt. "Hey, what are you doing tonight?"

"It's Tuesday?" Matt reminded. Chris froze. _Tacos._ His heart raced.

"Right, uh, just wanted to make sure we were still doing that…" Chris covered.

"You mean like we have every Tuesday for the past six years?" Matt asked slowly. Chris shut his eyes. Matt continued to drawl about its significance to their friendship. "… the only thing getting you out of this is if you're going to finally sleep with Bianca tonight."

"So you're okay with it?" Chris hoped.

"Yeah, I'll call Greg."

"You have friends other than me?" Chris blurted. Matt chose to laugh.

"We aren't all you, man." He teased. "Alright. I'll let him know I'm crashing."

"Thank you. Thank you. Thank you." Chris thanked. Matt rolled his eyes.

"I want details in the morning, though?" Matt qualified.

"Vague ones, but yeah, sure…" Chris agreed. "Just don't come home tonight?"

"Alright. Good luck." Matt hung up. Chris texted Bianca back.

* * *

"Just go." Skye encouraged. Perry hesitated. "It'll be fine."

"Will you go with me?" He hoped. She rolled her eyes.

"She's _your_ mom." She patted him on the chest. He whined. Piper waited on the other side of the wall. Perry built up the courage and finally walked into the kitchen.

"Hey." He said nervously. Piper didn't say anything back. She just pulled the kettle off the stove. _She took the kettle off the stove._ His heart raced. She poured the water over tea leaves and then brought their mugs to the table. _Morning, Peanut. Did you sleep okay?_

"Sit." Piper directed. Perry followed her instructions. He clasped his hands under the table so he wouldn't anxiously pick at his nails. "We need to chat."

"I know, but, look, Ma, I'm really-"

"Ma?" Piper caught. He froze. _Piper sprints to the living room. The demon shimmers to meet her._ Perry blinked. _He follows his mom. She turns to warn him._

 _"Chris, get out, now!" She shouts. He tilted his head. The demon conjures an energy ball and launches it at Piper. She flies into the staircase, and tumbles down the stairs. "No!" Chris telekinetically throws the demon across the room. It crashes into the grandfather clock and shimmers out_ Piper noticed his internal conflict and decided to move on. "I understand that you're an adult and engaged and celebrating the new world and-"

"Her being not dead?" He added. She paused. He regretted it. "I'm sorry, that's not-"

"No, it's okay…" She didn't know how to respond. He took the awkward silence to add honey to his tea. He took a sip.

"Damn, that's hot." He reacted.

"Language." She instinctively called out. He smirked. _If I catch you using that word one more t-_ "Right, so, if you're going to stay here-"

"We can move if you need us to?" Perry suggested.

"Not at the moment, you can't?" She reminded. He ran a hand through his hair. "There are a few things we need to discuss."

"Few?" He frowned.

"Obvious first being no sex while we're home." She started. He nodded in agreement. "I also would, well, your father and I would…"

"What?" He took a sip of tea. _Your father had to cancel, but he sends his love?_

"We think it would be a good idea to get you into talk with someone." Piper finished. Perry calmly set his mug down. She could tell he was hesitant.

"I appreciate the offer, but no, thank you." He declined. _I'm fine mom. I don't want him here anyways._ She sighed. Piper took a deep breath and tried again.

"We know the adjustment period has been pretty overwhelming, and we also know other future may not have been- we can only imagine you've been through some pretty traumatic things-" Perry clenched his jaw. "I'm worried about you."

"Don't be. I'm fine."

"It might help to unpack a few things?"

"There's nothing to unpack. What happened in the past is the past and the past didn't happen." He disregarded. _Bianca flew across the room. He screamed._

"It still happened to you." She validated.

"I said I'm fine." He said a bit defensively.

"It's okay if you aren't." Piper reminded. "A memory is a memory, and when they're powerful enough they can be scarring to the best of us."

"I don't need help, _Piper_. I'm fine." Perry said, more to convince himself than her.

"You know, you don't have to go through this alone anymore, Chris. You have people who care about you here. Social infrastructure that sort of works?" She pitched. _We're going to get through this, Chris. Together._ He almost listened. "Talk to _someone_."

* * *

"Lowest _unoccupied_ molecular orbital." Chris specified. Melinda looked at the diagram. Chris checked his phone for the time. He pointed at an orbital to speed things up. "Oh, look this one is unoccupied _and_ it's the lowest."

"It's okay if you don't want to be here." Melinda said, noticing his frustration. "I'd understand-"

"What? No. I said I'd help?" Chris assured. She shrugged.

"Yeah, but, that was before Bianca?"

"She's not coming over until tonight. ."

"Which means you probably have some panicking to do." Melinda knew.

"Honestly if anything is going to get my mind off of it it's chemistry." Chris sighed.

"So you're using my chemistry final to calm your panic over a girl?" Melinda spelled out. Chris nodded. "This explains so much of your personal life."

"Just study." Chris muttered. Melinda got a text. She ignored Chris and checked it. Chris rolled his eyes. "Who are you texting?"

"No one. Go away." She didn't look up. She got another text and smirked.

"Uh, no. That is a smile from someone I like face." He caught. She shrugged. "Are you really not going to tell me?"

"Do you really want to hear about it?" Melinda doubted. Chris wavered. "Exactly."

"No, I do." He decided. "If they're important to you… I guess they're important to me, too…"

"Love has changed you." Melinda noted. Chris chuckled.

"Who is this guy?"

"Are you trying to bond with me or vet them?" She asked first. He just grabbed her phone. "Wait, no, Chris, you don't-"

"He's….a girl?" Chris made sure. He processed for a moment. Her heart raced. She anxiously anticipated a negative response.

"Okay, so this really isn't how I wanted you to find out I-"

"So, where did you meet her?" He wondered. "She a student here? Do you know her major? Or at least where she's from?"

"Wait, what?" Melinda frowned.

"Did you think just because it's a girl I'm not going to vet her?" He pretended to be offended. She just blinked at his non-reaction. "Mel?"

"You're not going…" She didn't understand. She wasn't quite sure what she had expected, but it was more than this. "Not gonna-"

"I could try to pray it away if you'd rather?" He offered. She snorted. "Bully you?"

"No, making me feel stupid at science is enough for one day."

"Not my fault you chose to start studying so late." He said, taking no responsibility. She smiled, then it fell.

"Don't tell anyone?" She hoped. He nodded. "Thanks."

* * *

"Chris! Wyatt!" Phoebe called. She levitated and kicked a demon back. Paige held out a hand.

"Lamp!" She sent it flying towards another. Perry got to the alley first. He landed and immediately ducked to avoid an energy ball. Chris and Wyatt got there a couple of seconds later. A demon went to attack Paige.

"No!" Chris and Perry flicked their wrist and both sent it flying against the wall. The demon was hit with twice the strength of their normal attack and burst into flames upon contact. The boys looked at each other and shrugged. Wyatt shot an energy ball after one. Perry went one on one with a demon. Phoebe reversed a fireball attack, sending back to the demon. Paige threw a potion. The smoke cleared. They all looked around and assessed for injury.

"Everyone okay?" Wyatt called.

"No! I got scotch marks on my Jimmy Choos!" Paige complained.

"I'll take that as a yes?" Wyatt gathered. The rest of them nodded. "Great. Now what the hell was a demon doing attacking in the middle of the day?"

"I don't know…" Chris shrugged. "There hasn't been an attack like that in-"

"What happened? Were they after anyone?" Perry took command.

"Yeah, my shoes, apparently." Paige continued. Perry and Chris rolled their eyes.

"We were just going to lunch." Phoebe shrugged. Perry surveyed the scene.

"What's that?" He picked up an amulet.

"Oh my god, thanks. I can't believe I didn't realize that came off…" Phoebe swiped it. She put the necklace back on.

"Oh, that's really cute. Is it new?" Paige got a closer look.

"Yeah, I picked it up at the market on my way here." Phoebe showed it off. The boys waited. She joined them. "Wait, you don't think it anything to do with my necklace, do you?"

"It might?" Chris questioned. "I can check Magic school?"

"Don't you have a date?" Wyatt reminded. Chris shrugged.

"Bianca will understand?"

"She'll still be sad. Go on your date. I'll do it." Perry offered.

"Won't you have a sad Bianca too?" Phoebe reminded.

"Yeah, but she's already stuck with me. He's still got some wooing to do." Perry said. He brought his hand up to his face and checked out his nose. It was bleeding.

"Want me to heal that?" Wyatt offered.

"I'm fine." Perry said stubbornly.

"What can we do?" Paige asked her former whitelighter. Perry shrugged.

"Go to lunch. I'll go with him." Wyatt said. They nodded. Wyatt and Perry orbed out. They got to the school library and started searching.

* * *

"So what do people do here?" Perry wondered. He gave up on the book he was reading and swapped it out for a new one.

"What do you mean?" Wyatt barely looked up. He read a few lines.

"Like, with all their time?" Perry elaborated. Wyatt shrugged.

"Kind of depends on who you are." He answered vaguely. "People spend time with friends and family, they work out, they do adult things like grocery shop and clean the house… I like hiking? The other you does not… you know, I think he actually enjoys being miserable? Anyways, some people go out to bars and drink or clubs to dance? Uh, we get overly competitive at board games… do like, art shit? Write blogs? Go out to eat? Travel? Museums? Parks? Pretending to be smart at local coffee shops… Why, what do you like doing?"

"I don't know." Perry admitted. Wyatt looked up.

"What do you mean you don't know?" He judged.

"Well, between being sick as a kid and dealing with… well, you… I never really had time to figure it out." Perry explained. "Extracurriculars were never really an option…"

"Well, you're kind of doing something now?" Wyatt helped. "Family is a big one?"

"Do you really see me as family?" Perry wondered.

"What else would you call an alternate reality brother?"

"Exactly that?"

"Still has the word brother in it, which kind of implies family?" Wyatt rationalized. There was a pause. "Do you?"

"Do I what?"

"See _us_ as family?" Wyatt asked back. Perry stayed quiet. "You don't?"

"No, I- I want to. I really want to because you guys are amazing and loving and everything I have always wanted… but… I don't really know you? You know? The things that defined the people I knew never even happened here, and you guys don't know me… and … you know, I had a family that did. It was messy and broken, but it was mine." Perry said. "You guys are his."

"You know, just because we look the same and have the same names, doesn't mean we have to disrupt your idea of our past lives. You can keep us separate and still be with us. We're just… more relatives?"

"Not with Mom." Perry said sadly.

"How do you mean?"

"Well, when I was in the past she was still my mom, she was just an earlier version… but now… I mean, she looks the same. She acts the same…there is no denying she's Piper Halliwell…but none of the memories I have of us ever happened."

"Yeah."

"I want her to be mom." He sniffled. "I miss Mom. I miss her, _so much_. I want to believe they're the same, and sometimes I let myself believe they are and I slip, but every time I call her mom I feel like I'm betraying the one I had."

"Do you feel that way with Dad?"

"Not really… I have more of a relationship with your dad then I ever did mine…"

"Was he really that bad?" Wyatt asked. He couldn't imagine it.

"Wouldn't know." Perry said bitterly. "I was never worth his time."

"I'm sorry."

"Doesn't matter anymore." Perry went back to looking for the amulet. "Wait, I think I found it."

"What is it?" "It traps souls." He read. "It preserves them until a new vessel can accept them."

"So the demon that was after it-"

"Probably misses whoever is trapped inside."

"And willing to kill for a new body." Wyatt added. Perry quickly took a picture of the page and texted it to Phoebe and Paige. He got a response shortly after. "They're at the Manor."

* * *

"This is nice." Bianca wrapped Chris's arm closer around her.

"Yeah, it is." He snuggled up further. Finally holding her filled his everlasting void.

"I don't want to move." She said.

"Please, never do." Chris whispered. Bianca flipped around. He frowned. "You're moving?"

"I'm not going anywhere?" Bianca promised. She looked up at him and smiled at his blushing face. She bit her lip. He made the first move and kissed her softly. She smirked and gladly returned it. He kissed her back a bit more passionately this time and she shifted to be more on top of him. "How are you feeling about me moving now?"

"Becoming a fan." Chris replied, making her grin. He sat up a bit and held her lower back. She ran her hands through his hair to get it out of his face. He kissed her a few more times before his hands slid up her shirt to remove it. She gladly let him. He took a moment to stare. He looked at her in awe. The girl of his dreams, right in front of him. She chuckled. "You okay?"

"Yeah." He did his best not to cry. He kissed her instead.

"Your turn?" Bianca said with a flirty smile. He hesitated. "What?"

"I just…I… I don't look like you…" He worried. She kissed him one more time and then helped him remove it. He waited anxiously.

"I think you're perfect." Bianca promised. Chris shut his eyes and tried to not get emotional. She leaned forwards to subtly guide him back down so she could kiss his chest, right over his heart. He took a deep steadying breath, and then committed. He spun her around to be on top and reverted to familiar habits, memories meshing with reality.

"Oh, shit. Wait." He pulled back just as it got heated. She frowned.

"What?"

"Are you okay with this?" He checked first. She rolled her eyes.

"Oh my god, yes. Would you like me to write it on a legal document?" She teased. "I could get it notarized?"

"Just trying to be a decent human?"

"And I'm just trying to fuck one. Keep up." Bianca pulled him closer. Chris held back a bit. "Something wrong? Do you want to stop?"

"What? No." He tried to play off. She didn't buy it.

"Why do I feel like you're lying?" Bianca moved to give him space. "Chris, are you-"

"What? No. I just… I haven't done this in a while." He said nervously.

"How long's a while?" She worried. He ran a hand through his hair.

"Ever?" He confessed. She panicked.

"Oh my god. I'm so sorry, that was too fast- I just, you seemed like you knew what you were doing and I- I just kind of assumed-"

"Yeah. No, I did, I, uh, oh, this is probably going to sounds really weird, but…with you, I- this isn't exactly first time I- well, I have a few memories of past… _us-_ "

"Oh." She reacted. He cringed.

"I know how creepy that sounds, but-"

"So this is-"

"A dream come true?" He phrased in the least awful way he could think of.

"So you've…we've… in a dream?"

"Yeah."

"Like, a lot?"

"Well-"

"But you in real life?"

"Kind of felt like it would be cheating on you?" Chris said. She took a moment to process. "I know that sounds and that's kind of a lot,… are you okay with that?"

"What I'm hearing is you'll never cheat on me and we'll most likely avoid the awkward trial period figuring out what we each like and go straight into engagement level sex." She imagined. "I think I can handle that."

"Yeah?" He started breathing normally again.

"With literally being the girl of your dreams?" She chuckled. "Words of affirmation aren't usually my thing, but _that_ one might go to my head."

"I lo- like the way you're okay with this." Chris covered. She didn't notice.

"Just to double check, though, you're okay with us-"

" _Yes_."

* * *

"Finally! I have been calling you for an hour." Skye yelled at Perry. He looked at Phoebe and Paige in the other room. "You're not even here for me, are you?"

"I-" He cringed. "I put you on mute… I'm sorry?"

"On mute?" She held back her rage. "On _mute?_ "

"A demon attacked Phoebe and Paige at lunch." Wyatt said, hoping to help out. "We've been trying to figure out what-"

"Uh uh. Big brother ain't saving you this time." Skye crossed her arms. Perry scratched the back of his head. She waited for his attention. "Let me make this very clear: you put a ring on my finger, you do not get to put me on mute."

"Yeah." He agreed. She took a deep breath. "What were you calling about?"

"Can we talk in private?"

"We really have to-"

"I'll do it. You focus on… this." Wyatt said, mainly to get away from the tension. Perry and Skye walked over to the other room. He crossed his arms and shrugged.

"So?"

"What is this?" She asked. She produced a piece of paper. He grabbed it and read.

"You called me for hour over a to do list?"

"That's not a to do list, Chris, that's a bucket list."

"And?"

"We've crossed off a lot of them." She worried. He nodded slowly.

"That's usually a good thing." He said in a patronizing tone. She scoffed.

"Don't give me that."

"Okay, how would you like me to respond?"

"Why did you make this?" She tried again.

"Because there are things worth putting on a bucket list in this future." Perry said, still unclear of the problem. "I just want to make sure I don't waste time."

"Are you planning on going somewhere?" She accused. Phoebe popped her head in the room.

"Hey, can-"

"We're kind of in the middle of something." Skye cleared her throat. Perry rolled his eyes.

"It's fine. What's up?"

"Seriously?" Skye gave him a look. Perry ignored it. Phoebe could sense her hurt and his irritation.

"What's going on?" Perry asked again. Phoebe looked back and forth between them. "Phoebe?"

"We found our demon." She said.

"Great. Let's go." Perry didn't bother looked back at Skye before he walked into the other room. He brushed past his aunt.

 _"Go away." Chris mutters as Leo enters. Leo ignores his son's request and walks over to the hospital bed. "I don't want you here, Dad."_

 _"I came to apologize for not being there yesterday." Leo says. Chris looks down. "It could have been my last Christmas." Chris replies, hoping to make Leo feel guilty._

 _"I know, Christopher. And I tried. I just couldn't get out of-" He stops when Chris shakes his head no. "Buddy-"_

 _"The least you could have done was call…" Chris shrugs. "Sent a text…"_

 _"I didn't have time. If I had time to call I would have orbed here."_

 _"You had time to get a present for Wyatt?" Chris bit his lip. He plays with the oximeter on his finger. "He told me all about it this morning… you're going to see the game on Friday?"_

 _"He gave me a list of things he wanted, I had Paige order them." Leo desperately tried to explain. "I didn't know what you would want, and-"_

 _"All I wanted was for you to be here."_

"Phoebe, you okay?" Perry worried. She wiped a tear.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Let's go."

* * *

 _"You promised you wouldn't hurt him!" Bianca screams._

 _"And you promised you'd turn him." Wyatt snarls. Bianca turns to Chris. "Just like I turned you,|or at least I thought I had."_

 _"Chris, please." She begs for forgiveness. "I didn't bring you here to die…"_

 _"Don't worry, I know what I'm doing." He assures unconfidently. "I think."_

 _"Have you lost your mind? I don't need you." Wyatt boasts. He holds Chris in a choke hold. Chris struggles to breathe. Bianca plunges her hand inside Wyatt._

 _"Whatever you're gonna do,|do it fast." She advises. "I can't hold him for long."_

 _"Power of witches, rise|Come to me from across the skies Return my magic, give me back All that was taken from the attack" He finishes. Wyatt escapes her hold and throws Bianca back._

Perry shot up with his heart pounding. He immediately looked to his left at the woman sleeping besides him. He watched her closely, analyzing the rise and fall of her breath. Her aliveness began to sink in and his heart rate slowed to normal. He ran his hands through his hair and held them at the base of his neck. He shut his eyes and took deep breaths. When he opened them he couldn't help but look back over just to double check she was okay. He watched her for a few more breathing cycles before going to get a drink. _Haven't we been here before?_ He poured another. _You can finish what we started._ He poured until he stopped seeing it.

"Babe?" Skye shook Perry's shoulder. He lifted his head up from the kitchen table.

"Huh?"

"Come back to bed." She directed. He rubbed his eyes and focused on her face.

"Yeah." Perry stood up carefully. Skye started cleaning up. He watched her put the scotch back at the bar and his glass in the dishwasher. He yawned. "Oh, thanks… my Dad would have freaked if I-"

"Yeah, no problem." Skye walked back towards him. She wrapped her arms around him and rested her hands on the square of his back. He leaned his forehead on hers.

"I love you."

"I love you, too." She promised. Perry pulled her in closer. She buried her head in his chest. He held on tightly.

"I missed you so much."

"I'm not going anywhere, babe." She promised. He finally let go. She wiped a few tears off his cheeks. She caressed his cheek. He laughed. She froze. "Are you okay?"

"No." He said, surprising her with his honesty. He grinned. "No, I'm very much not okay."

"Chris?" She looked him up and down. He shook his head and kept laughing.

"I'm not okay." He kept laughing. "I'm not-"

"You're going to be." Skye brought him back into a hug. Perry's laugh turned into sobs. Skye rubbed his back until he calmed down a bit. He shivered. She checked his temperature and frowned. "Let's get you back to bed."

* * *

Sooooo what'd you think?


	8. Chapter 5

"Agh!" Chris woke to Matt eating a bowl of cereal in his room. He felt his heart pound. He grabbed his glasses just to make sure it was happening. "Were you watching me sleep again?"

"Waiting for you to wake up." Matt reworded. He spoke with food in his mouth. Chris shivered in gross.

"That's just as weird?" He whined.

"Hey, I looked in first to make sure no one else was here?" Matt said defensively.

"She left for work." Chris explained. "Okay, why are you in my room again?"

"But she _did_ spend the night?" Matt pressed. Chris yawned.

"Yeah." He confirmed. Matt's eyebrows went up.

"And…?"

"And… what?"

"Oh come on. Give me details." Matt begged. He took a bite of cocoa puffs. "You exiled me, can I at least know if it was a sexile?"

"Ohm right… yeah. Yeah." Chris said with a giddy smile. He bit his lip and blushed. Matt stopped eating to process. This was uncharted territory. "Yeah, it was…"

"How was it?" Matt swallowed. Chris swooned.

"Amazing." Chris answered right away. He thought back to the night before and shut his eyes. Matt nodded. Chris opened his eyes. He exhaled and shook his head in disbelief. "She's _perfect._ "

* * *

"We fucked last night." Skye brought Perry coffee. Perry looked up confused.

"No… I wasn't that drunk, was I?"

"No, not _us,_ dumbass _._ " Skye playfully hit him. He winced. " _Us."_

"Oh, shit. Really?" Perry looked impressed. He ran a hand through his hair. Then he frowned. "Wait, how do _you_ know?"

"I ran into you in the kitchen this morning and I've never seen you smile that much." She giggled. "You're literally glowing."

"Really?" Perry smirked. "That's cute."

"I expect you to glow like that next time we… you know." She straddled over him in the chair. He looked her up and down and raised his eyebrow. She flipped her hair to the other side and leaned in close. He bit his lip.

"I'm sure I could manage to glow now if-" Skye laughed and then stood up, off him.

"Uh, yeah, no. You're starting to look like patient zero over there."

"I'm not that sick?" He denied. She rolled her eyes and pulled out her phone. "I could just be hungover?"

"Yeah, sure… I also got a text about it from me."

"What?" Perry went back to his coffee. "Wait, why?"

"She was hoping for some advice." Skye summarized. He cringed.

"Was I really that bad?"

"What? No. Opposite." Skye said quickly to protect his ego. "Actually apparently you already knew exactly what I liked because you had memories of us-"

"Oh, god. That's just… worse? So much worse. That's really creepy…" He interjected. "It's creepy, right?"

"Or, super convenient?" Skye imagined. He considered it."Anyways, moral of the story, she wanted to do the same for you next time and so she texted me about you."

"Wait, so, no… that means he's seen _us_ … and we're like… having the same sex? I can't deal with that." Perry admitted. "Yeah. Nope. I'm already feeling a little nauseas and-"

"Same person, same feels?" She proposed. He gagged. "Yeah, it's a little weird."

"No, it's _a lot_ weird." Perry stressed. She looked down. He shrugged. "I'm never going to not think about that?"

"What are we talking about?" Piper came in smiling. Skye shot her head up.

"Plants." She said. Piper bought it.

"Oh, I was just at Home Depot they had some really nice ones. What were you thinking about? We probably have some room in the conservatory if you wanted to get one?" Piper offered.

"We were just admiring the ones you already had." Skye declined politely. Perry thought about it.

"Can we get cherry tomatoes?" Perry requested. Skye looked at him.

"Really?" Skye mouthed.

"They're the perfect addition to any salad?" He defended. She let it go.

"Of course! We can go later today." Piper accepted enthusiastically. Perry sent Skye a victory smile. Skye rolled her eyes.

"You're ridiculous." She said.

"Uh, I'm adorable." He argued. She patted him on the cheek.

"And so very humble." She said, making Piper chuckle. He moved his face out of the way and then came back around to kiss her. Piper smiled softly. It was nice to see a lighter side of her son after all the seriousness of the past. The cuteness wore off when Perry continued to kiss her. Piper cleared her throat.

"Still in the room." She reminded. They broke apart.

"Sorry." Perry retreated back to his coffee. A beat passed. "What's up?"

"The Elders finally worked it all out. You guys have officially have identities now."

"Wait, really?" Skye smiled. Piper nodded. She pulled out documents and a flash drive from her purse.

"Social security, credit scores, renters histories, passports, health records, birth certificates, school records…" She trailed off.

"So we're actually staying?" Perry couldn't believe. "We can live in this-"

"Yeah." Piper confirmed. Perry needed a moment to take it all in. He picked up a few of the documents. "Paige did say there was an opening at the Magic school next term if you-"

"Do I get health insurance?" He asked, shivering.

"I'd assume so?"

"I'll take it." Perry said. Piper smiled.

"Know anyone hiring ex assassins?" Skye asked, half-joking half-panicking.

"You know, there are such things has human bounty hunters." Piper reminded. "I have a feeling you might be good at it?"

"I could work with that." She calmed down.

"Also, one more thing." Piper's attitude shifted dramatically. Perry frowned.

"What?"

"Melinda had her last final yesterday, and she comes home tomorrow." Piper started. "I know you guys haven't exactly-"

"Yeah."

* * *

"So I can come over?" Wyatt gathered. Chris shut his eyes.

"Did you not just hear what I said?" Chris asked impatiently.

"Uh, I asked if you were busy. You said you were going on a run, I laughed at your joke, and now I really want to hear about everything so I'm coming over." He summarized.

"Except I'm not joking, Wy." Chris said for the third time. Wyatt laughed.

"Yeah, right."

"No, I'm actually-" Chris watched his brother materialize in his room. "What are you doing here?"

"I want to hear about-" What stopped. He looked Chris up and down. "What are you wearing?"

" _I'm going on a run._ "

"Oh… you were serious about that?"

"Yes. Now, if you don't mind-"

"I'll be back in like twenty?"

"Hey, I can run longer than- yeah, no, I can't. Sounds good." Chris agreed. He found his headphones and headed out. He very quickly learned his run would be more of a run/walk combo. He slowed down to his first walk. _What the fuck? Why is this so hard?_

* * *

"I need to talk to you." Piper crossed her arms. Perry looked up from his book.

"Everything okay?" He asked. He curled up further in his sweatshirt.

"No." She said shortly. He frowned.

"What's going on?"

"I just did inventory at the restaurant." She prefaced. Perry inhaled sharply. He knew what was coming. He pretended he didn't. He exhaled slowly.

"Something wrong?"

"Don't give me that." Piper warned. He bit his lip. "I'm missing a _lot_ of scotch, kid."

"I'll pay you back the moment I-"

"That's not why I'm upset."

"Right…" Perry picked at his cuticles. Piper waited for an explanation. He stayed silent.

"I'm going to need something, Chris."

"Sorry."

"Not going to cut it." She vetoed. Perry chewed his thumb nail. Another beat passed. Piper dropped the hard act and let her concern show. He recognized the look on her face.

"I'm fine, Piper."

"Doesn't look so fine in the books." Piper reminded. Perry shrugged.

"I haven't been able to sleep very well the past week and I'm really tired of always being tired and-"

"Any particular reason you can't sleep?"

"I don't know. I guess I've just been having a lot of nightmares?" He said shyly. She sighed. He chewed on his sweatshirt drawstring.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Piper offered. Perry shook no. "Future consequences don't apply anymore? You can talk to me here, Peanut."

"Yeah."

"What's going on?" She asked. He struggled.

"I can't." Perry refused. She nodded in understanding. "I'm sorry."

"It's okay." Piper sat down on the armrest of the couch he was on. He rubbed his nose.

"Look, I know it's not the healthiest way to deal, but just having a few a drinks before bed really helps, so-"

"I really think you should talk to someone." Piper encouraged. She moved his bangs out of his face for him. She left her hand by his forehead. It lingered. He waited.

"Ma?"

"Chris, you're burning up… are you feeling okay?" She worried.

* * *

"How was your run?"

"It sucked." Chris recapped. Wyatt chuckled. "You do that on a regular basis?"

"Yeah." Wyatt kept laughing and Chris's gagging face. "If you do it enough you start to enjoy it."

"Funny. I don't believe you." Chris shrugged. Wyatt rolled his eyes. Chris started making lunch. "Do you want anything?"

"Yeah, to hear about last night." Wyatt sat on a bar stool.

"Do we really have to talk about it?" Chris checked. Wyatt just stared. "Can't you get cliff notes from Matt?"

"Wait, you told _Matt_ before me?" Wyatt accused. Chris shrugged.

"He woke me up?"

"So she _didn't_ sleep over?"

"No, she did."

"She did?" Wyatt questioned. "But Matt woke you up?"

"She had already left for work…" Chris assured. "I just went back to bed and Matt then woke me up."

"So she did sleep over?"

"Yeah." Chris confirmed. Wyatt waited. He grew impatient.

"Anything happen?" Wyatt asked excitedly. Chris blushed. He kept working on his sandwich to hide his face. "Is that a yes?"

"It's kind of personal, Wy."

"Oh, come on. I am your older brother. I expect _and deserve_ details." Wyatt laughed

"What do you want me to say?" Chris laughed. "It was amazing and she's perfect and it was everything I thought it would be and more?"

"That's a good start?" Wyatt encouraged. Chris rolled his eyes. He finished making his turkey sandwich and took a large bite. He decided it needed more mayo. "That's it? Chris, you haven't had sex since when, Natalie?"

"Sure." He let him believe.

"So it's been years and all I get is a sentence?"

"It's Bianca, Wy." Chris reminded. "It's everything I told you about for years…"

"So it was the same?" Wyatt needed more. Chris nodded.

"Yeah, except significantly better because it was real."

"Did she like what you thought she liked?" Wyatt wondered. Chris nodded again. "So you guys and the other you guys are having the same sex?"

"Wait, what?" Chris stopped eating. He suddenly wasn't hungry.

"If you both like the same thing then-"

"Would you shut up? I don't want to think about that?"

"What, you didn't think about it already?" "No, I didn't and you need to stop talking about it before I throw up."

* * *

"How do I have so much shit?" Melinda wondered. Perry just stared at her all her bags thinking the same thing. An additional thought, _how do I have a sister?_

"Is there anything else in the car?" He asked, trying to help out.

"I've got it." She declined.

"Okay." He nodded. _Definitely stubborn enough to be a Halliwell_. He tried one more time. "Do you-"

"I don't need your help, okay?" Melinda said forcefully. Perry backed off.

"Yeah." He ran a hand through his hair and watched her struggle up the stairs. Piper sighed at the interaction. Perry looked at her and shrugged.

"Melinda, let Chr-" Piper stopped, seeing how uncomfortable the name made her daughter. " _Perry,_ why don't you help carry some of this stuff upstairs."

"Mom, I said I don't need-"

"It's not about need, it's about resources." Piper explained. "Use them."

"Yeah. I'll orb it up." Perry said. Piper gave him a look. "I'm still feeling kind of run down from earlier?"

"Fine… but only because dinner's getting cold!" She called after them.

* * *

 _"I'm scared, Mom."_ _Chris says. Piper holds his hand as the nurse hooks up the bag of medication. The nurse requests Piper to move over a bit so he can hook Chris up to it. Chris bites his lip and stares at the bag of chemicals. He watches it enter his body. He squirms when it reaches him. It's cold. He looks towards the door. "Did Dad say when he was coming?"_

"You okay?" Melinda worried. Perry nodded.

"What? Yeah. I'm fine. Just feeling kind of sick." He went back to dinner. He picked at it. He wasn't very hungry.

"Are you sure?" Leo noticed it this time, too. _What did I do to become such a bad dad?_

"It doesn't matter anymore." Perry replied. Leo lifted an eyebrow. _Deep down you hate my guts. Admit it. Come on, admit it. What, are you afraid?_ His head hurt. "I'm not afraid of you."

"I'm sorry?" Leo looked side to side. Perry gave him a confused look.

" _I can't be there all the time!" Leo shouts."Don't give me that guilt trip."_

"Son?" _Do you have any idea how much we're putting into your treatment?"_

"Babe, you're kind of scaring me." Skye admitted. Perry snapped out of it.

"Would you excuse me for a minute?" Perry placed his napkin on the table and exited the room. He went to the bathroom and splashed some water on his face. _Bianca? What are you-_ "It didn't happen. Everyone's okay. It didn't happen… You're okay…" Perry told himself. _Haven't we been here before?_ He stepped back. _Maybe we will be again._ He took a deep breath. _If you could finish what we started._

"I did." He cried.

"Chris, open up." Skye knocked again. Perry turned towards the door. He opened it.

"What?"

"Uh, you alright?"

"I'm fine, go back to dinner."

"Are you really going to try that one on me?" Skye crossed her arms and blocked his exit. _Not without a fight, no._

"Wait, what?" Perry rubbed his eyes. He shivered. The sicker he felt the worse the flashbacks were getting.

"Chris?" _It really is for the best._ He struggled to stay grounded in reality. _Leave her out of this!_ Perry flinched. Skye immediately walked forwards.

"Hey? Hey? Look at me?" She forced him to look. "What's going on?"

"What is happening?" He whispered. _Whatever you're going to do, do it fast._

"That's what I'm waiting for you to tell me." Skye reminded. Perry sniffled. _Make it back to me, safely._ Perry nodded. Skye frowned. _If you want to marry me?_

"You really know how to motivate a guy, you know that?" He responded with a smirk.

"What?" Skye frowned. He tilted his head.

"Why did I say that?"

"Maybe you should sit down?" She suggested.

"Yeah." He agreed. They walked over to the living room and he sat on a couch. He leaned forwards and placed his head in his hands.

"Hey, are you okay?" Leo entered. _I don't have the time for this._

"What, actually dying this time made you finally care?" Perry jabbed. Leo stepped back. Perry rubbed his eyes.

"Babe?" Skye gave him a look. Perry froze when he realized what he had done.

"Oh, no… Dad…" He immediately apologized. "I'm so sorry… I didn't mean-"

"It's okay." Leo assured. Perry shook his head no. "It's not?"

"Hey, what's going on?" Piper walked into the room. _She is met by an energy ball. It's force blows her into the staircase._ Perry shot up to help. _Piper tumbles down the stairs._ He blinked and saw her just standing there. He started shaking. _Chris telekinetically throws the demon across the room. He rushed over to his mom's side and hols out his hands. He feels the warm glow for a moment, but it quickly burns out. He tries again. His nose starts bleeding. He tried again but couldn't sustain it. He felt too faint. Her lifeless eyes stare straight at the fourteen year old, and he knew._ _It was too late to call anyone else._

 _"Mom? Mom, no. No, Mom?"_ Piper walked over. Perry started crying. She reached out to touch him. He stared at her. He watched her hand touch his chest. "Mom?"

"I'm right here, baby." Piper promised. She pulled him into an embrace.

"I couldn't do it." He whispered. "I'm so sorry. I just didn't have it in me and…I couldn't do it…"

"What couldn't you do?" Perry let her hold him. "You're okay."

"I couldn't save you." He confessed. Piper rubbed his back.

"I'm right here." _Piper feels cold in his arms. He could still smell the chocolate chip cookies baking in the oven._ Perry backed away.

"You're not Mom." He decided. He kept backing away until he was at the stairs, and then jogged to his old room. He closed the door in their face. Skye knocked.

"Let me in?" She requested. Piper and Leo stood behind her. They could hear Perry crying on the other side of the door. "Don't make me shimmer, Chris."

"Just leave me alone." Perry begged. He sat in a ball against the wall and held his head. He just wanted the flashbacks to stop. Skye tried again.

"Can I come in?" She hoped. Perry wiped his tears. "Please?"

"Fine." He allowed. She slipped through the doorway. He started crying again the moment he saw her. She sat next to him and put her arm around his shoulders. He leaned into her. She kissed the side of his head. "What's happening to me?"

"I don't know, but we're going to get through it. I promise." She held him tightly.

" _You're asking me here? Now?"_

 _"This is still our spot, Bianca. No matter what he's done to it."_

"Why don't you go to bed?" Skye encouraged. He shook his head.

"It'll just get worse if I sleep." He knew. She sighed.

"You're white as a ghost, at least lie down?" She requested. He orbed out. "Are you kidding me?"

Melinda picked at her peas at the table.

* * *

"Are you kidding me?" Chris rechecked the fridge. He went back to the pantry. "There is literally nothing to eat… Why is there nothing to eat? How? I _just_ went to the store. Where did all of our food go?"

"Oh, yeah, I threw some of it out." Matt said. He didn't look up from his magazine. Chris closed the pantry door and slowly turned to face his roommate.

"Excuse me?" He gave Matt a terrifying glare. Matt didn't notice. He shrugged.

"You said you wanted to eat healthier, so I threw out some of the junk?" He said innocently. Chris scoffed. "I was trying to help…"

"I _paid_ for said junk, Matt." Chris complained. Matt cringed. "I don't have an income this month, remember? I don't get paid until trials st-"

"I'll pay you back…?"

"Yeah, you will." Chris ran a hand through his hair. He pulled out his phone.

"What are you doing?"

"Ordering take out because you threw out all my food." Chris blamed. He waited for the people to pick up. "Hi, can I- oh, yeah, I'll wait…. You're paying for this."

"Chris, just make something?" Matt encouraged. "There's chicken in the freezer?"

" _There's chicken in the freezer._ " He mocked under his breath.

"Really?"

"I don't know how to cook." Chris defaulted. Matt just stared.

"You're a chemist?"

"Which means I need very detailed instruc- hi, yeah… can I order?"

"What are you even getting?"

"Chinese… Can I get an order of egg rolls, beef broccoli, and the sweet and sour chicken?" Chris ordered. Matt set his magazine down. "Oh, with extra sauce? That comes with fortune cookies, right?"

"Really?" Matt judged.

"What?" Chris frowned. Matt rubbed his eyes. "Fifteen minutes? I'll be there. Thank you… yeah, you, too… bye."

"Chris…" Matt bit his lip, unsure how to say it.

"What?"

"The point of throwing the food out was so that you'd have to eat something healthy."

"And?" Chris didn't see a problem.

"And everything you just ordered is deep fried." Matt laid out.

"I got broccoli?" Chris justified. "And egg rolls are kind of vegetables, so-"

"No." Matt shook his head.

"What else was I supposed to do?" Chris tried.

" _Anything else._ "

"Yeah, well, it's too late now, so." Chris shrugged. Matt shut his eyes. "And for that commentary, you are not getting a fortune cookie."

"You asked me to help." Matt reminded.

"Help, not judge." Chris directed. He checked his watch.

"Only been like a minute." Matt said. Chris walked towards the fridge and grabbed a root beer. Matt went to say something but decided to stay quiet. Chris leaned against the counter and took a sip.

"How was work?"

"A bitch." Matt complained. Chris nodded. He checked his watch again. Matt rolled his eyes. "Okay, maybe another minute has gone by."

"I haven't eaten in like seven hours?"

"The horror." Matt mocked. Chris scoffed.

"That's a long time?" He argued. Matt crossed his arms. "Why do I talk to you? You're always mean."

"You don't have anyone else to talk to." Matt said bluntly. Chris took a second to recover. "And before you say it, no. Family doesn't count. They're stuck with you."

"Hey, I have friends?" Chris claimed. Matt waited. "You know both of them?"

"Dr. Banner doesn't count."

"Why not?"

"He doesn't count." Matt finalized. Chris thought.

"Does Mark?"

"When was the last time you talked to him?"

"Few weeks ago?" Chris shrugged. He replied to a text message. Chris checked his watch. He decided to sit down while we waited. Chris checked his watch again. He bounced his leg up and down.

"If you keep checking your watch the time is only going to go slower." Matt said quietly. Chris glared. "I'll just stop talking."

"Yeah. You do that." Chris encouraged. He ran a hand through his hair and took a deep, calming breath. "Does Bianca count?"

* * *

"Can we talk?" Leo hoped. Perry looked down from his seat on a Golden Gate cable to the platform where Leo stood. He curled up into his sweatshirt at a gust of wind. Leo seemed immune to the cold.

"Can we start with how did you got up here?" Perry muttered.

"Paige." Leo explained. Perry snorted.

"The reason I'm here is because I figured I could be alone for a bit." He explained bitterly. "Why can everyone in this family teleport?"

"Chris, come on. Talk to me."

"There's nothing to talk about, Dad."

"I think there is, Chris. Quite a lot, actually."

"Just leave me alone."

"That's not how being a Halliwell works." Leo said. Perry bit his lip. "I want to be there for you, to help with whatever you-"

"You can't orb which means I can't leave without you, right?" Perry assessed. "Can you call Paige if I do?"

"Stop being difficult and talk to me." Leo said. Perry sighed. "What do you have to lose?"

"Fine… I just keep thinking about my life… or what used to be my life… I know it didn't happen and yet… Every time I run into Mom I see her die." Perry admitted. "I blink and she's gone and I blink and she's healthy and alive and- mom was killed right in front of me and now she's making me tea… she's okay and that memory didn't happen and I shouldn't be-"

"It happened to you."

"If it happened then…" Perry shrugged. "Then they happened and you guys aren't really mine… and you're not my really dad…"

"Son-" Perry waved his hand and orbed Leo away.

"You're just what I always wanted…" Perry rested his head on his knees.

 _"He's not sick, Piper. He knows when he gets sick he gets to see me…" Leo explains. "I mean, Wyatt never gets sick this often?"_

 _"Exactly. Something isn't right."_

 _"Yeah, he's faking it!" Leo shouts. The little boy upstairs cocoons himself further in the blanket. Leo lowers his voice."Even if he is, it's probably just another cold. I can't come down every time he sneezes."_

 _"He's has been sick on and off again for weeks." Piper reminds. "So either you're right and you've neglected him enough that this is a cry for attention or he's not lying and there is something seriously wrong with our son."_

 _"Piper-"_

 _"It takes thirty seconds and you're already here. Heal him." Piper demands. He nods and orbs them to Chris's room. Chris perks up at the sound of orbs._

 _"Dad?" Chris hopes. Leo walks over._

 _"Let's get you better, yeah?" Leo brushes Chris's bangs out of the way. Chris smiles tiredly. He's too weak to nod. Leo's hands glow. Chris stays sick._

 _"What's wrong?" Piper notices. Leo stops. He frowns._

 _"I don't know. It's not working?"_ _Chris shivers violently._

 _"Try again?" Piper panics. "Leo, try again!"_

* * *

Hope you enjoyed!


	9. Chapter 6

p class="p1"span class="s1" "I can't believe I had never done this until last week…" Chris flopped on his back and took heavy breaths. Bianca smiled at him. He turned towards her and smiled back. She kissed him./span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "We could go again and make up for lost time?" She offered. He class="Apple-converted-space" /span/span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "I might need a few minutes, but yeah, I'm down."/span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "I'll be right back." Bianca kissed him one more time and then left for the bathroom. They each performed their post sex obligations and came back to cuddle. Bianca snuggled in close. He kissed her class="Apple-converted-space" /span/span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "There are other things we could do in the meantime…?" He suggested. She flipped back over to face him. They looked into each other's eyes for a moment. She blushed./span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "What?"/span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "I can't believe you're real." Chris admitted. "That this is happening."/span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "I was just thinking the same thing." She smiled softly. The door opened./span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "Hey, do you want to-" Everyone froze. Matt stared, too shocked to class="Apple-converted-space" /span/span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "Do you mind?" Chris yelled, snapping Matt out of class="Apple-converted-space" /span/span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "Right. I'll just… go…" Matt quickly exited and closed the door behind him./span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "I should probably go, too." Bianca decided. She searched for her clothes./span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "Wait, Bi. You don't have to-" She fixed her shirt and gave him a class="Apple-converted-space" /span/span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "Text me later?" Bianca class="Apple-converted-space" /span/span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "Yeah." Chris agreed. He threw a pair of pants on so he could walk her out. Matt hid behind the kitchen island until he heard the door close behind her. He stood back up. Chris glared. "There's usually a reason people close doors."/span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "I-" Matt stuttered. Chris wasn't having it. He shook his head. "Chris-"/span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "Ever hear of knocking?" He continued. Matt swallowed nervously./span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "I'm sorry…I'm still getting used to this situation…" Matt tried. "It's never happened bef-"/span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "Well it's happening now. Figure it out!" Chris shouted and threw his hands up. Matt froze. Chris cursed. He rubbed his eyes in frustration. Matt nodded slowly and then started walking out. Chris scoffed. "Really? You really just going to leave? You're not even going to-"/span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "You know, us genuinely arguing has also never happened before. Guess I should get used to you being an ass, too?" Matt closed his door. Chris shut his eyes. He cursed again and then followed. He opened Matt's door to talk./span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "Wait, Matt, I didn't mean to-"/span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "Ever hear of knocking?"/span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "I'm sorry." Chris apologized. Matt crossed his arms. "I'm really sorry… I didn't- I don't know what got- what were you going to ask me earlier?"/span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "It doesn't matter." Matt shrugged. "You already forgot we had plans, so-"/span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "No, I didn't." Chris promised. Matt gave him a look. "I didn't. I just… I lost track of time and-"/span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "It's fine." Matt lied. "If I was dating someone like Bianca I would probably forget about me, too, so…"/span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "You're still my number one?" Chris tried./span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "Am I?" Matt doubted. Chris inhaled./span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "What did you want to do?" Chris asked instead of answering. Matt took a deep breath./span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "You start work on Monday, so I figured… okay, so I felt bad about the food thing and… I'm aware we'll have to make some cuts in order to finish by the end of the weekend- though I'm down to continue through the week if you don't want to-" Matt rambled. Chris waited. "I already bought the snacks for an MCU marathon? And before you ask, yes, Bianca can come for part of it and you can break for family dinner. I'm not naive enough to think I can have you the whole we-"span class="Apple-converted-space" /span/span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "Where do you want to start? Timeline or release date?" Chris dove straight into it. Matt smiled. "Oh, but I have lunch with Mel tomorrow… I can time it with Winter Soldier?"/span/p  
p class="p2" /p  
p class="p3" /p  
p class="p3" /p  
p class="p1"span class="s1"x/span/p  
p class="p3" /p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "Hey, how are you feeling?" Skye walked in. Perry barely acknowledged her. She tried again./span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "Did you sleep okay?" Perry put his head back on the pillow. Skye sat on the bed next to him. He sniffled./span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "I'm really not in the mood to talk right now, Bianca." He finally said. She nodded and started standing. He felt bad. "Wait, I'm sorry… I just… I don't feel very good and-"/span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "It's okay." She pet his head. He started falling back asleep. "Chris?"/span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "Huh?" He asked with his eyes still closed./span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "Do you want me to call Paige to heal you?" She offered. He shook his head no. "Are you sure?"/span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "I just need to sleep. I'll be fine." He assured. She moved his bangs out of his face. "I love you?"/span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "I love you, too." Skye kissed his forehead. He smirked through his quasi dream state. She frowned at his high temperature. She went downstairs to grab water for his bedside./span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "How's Chris doing?" Piper asked the moment she saw Skye enter the kitchen. Skye grabbed a glass. She filled it up./span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "A bit shaken up from yesterday." She reported. "Plus, he's still sick… he's sleeping right now… I think yesterday took a lot out of him?"/span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "Yeah, of course." Piper understood. She sighed. "Well, maybe this will help. I'm almost done with the dough. I'm missing-"/span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "Are those chocolate chip?" Skye asked nervously. Piper smiled and nodded. "Oh, no, Piper… I don't think that's such a good id-"/span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "What? Why? Chris loves-"/span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "Yeah, he does…" Skye thought of a good excuse. emDid. /emShe came up blank. Piper stopped mixing. "I'm sure he'd appreciate the thought, but… I just don't think it's-"/span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "What is it?" She worried./span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "The smell." Skye shared. "It kind of reminds him of… uh… it's just best if you don't?"/span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "Okay."span class="Apple-converted-space" /span/span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1"x/span/p  
p class="p3" /p  
p class="p3" /p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "I think you're losing it." Melinda said. Chris took a frustrated breath and continued to fill up his cup./span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "We've been over this, Mel. Coke Zero is just better than-"/span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "That's not what I'm talking about." Melinda still got Diet. Chris just shook his head. They walked over to a table. Chris dug in before Melinda could start restart the gossip. "I'm talking about you yesterday-"/span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "Oh my god. Am I not allowed to go on a run?" Chris reacted. "Why are you and Wyatt freaking out about-"/span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "That's not what I'm talk-" She processed what he had said. "You went for a run?"/span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "Yeah?"/span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "As in participated in physical activity?" Melinda made sure she heard it correctly. He gave her an unamused look. She laughed. "I'm sorry, that's mean. I just… no I can't…"/span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "Why is it so hard to believe?" Chris asked with food in his mouth. Melinda decided to plead the fifth. He swallowed it with help from a sip of soda. She re-restarted./span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "The other you lost his shit at dinner last night."/span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "What do you mean? Like get angry?" Chris crunched on a few class="Apple-converted-space" /span/span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "No, like you went emcrazy. /emStarted seeing things that we're there…"/span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "Maybe I shouldn't not take that med anymore…"/span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "What med?"/span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "Nothing." Chris went back to eating. "Continue?"/span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "I didn't get involved because I don't know you, but, from what I heard you were having some pretty traumatic flashbacks of the other future." Melinda said. She finally started on her sandwich. "You couldn't tell what was real and what wasn't."span class="Apple-converted-space" /span/span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "That doesn't sound pleasant." Chris pretended to imagine. He knew. Melinda put her drink down. He sighed. "I should probably talk to him…"/span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "What? No. That's a horrible idea." Melinda shot down. "Chris, I love you, but… you're not the best at…"/span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "Why does everyone think I'm an asshole?"/span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "No, you're not… you're just… very INTJ?"/span/p  
p class="p3" /p  
p class="p3" /p  
p class="p1"span class="s1"x/span/p  
p class="p3" /p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "Poor guy." Paige sighed after hearing about Perry's night. Phoebe nodded./span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "He doing okay now?" She asked Piper. Piper shrugged. "I can't even imagine what this must be like for him…"/span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "Was he dealing with this in the past? Paige wondered. "I mean, were we just blind?"/span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "I don't know… if I know anything about my son, he's pretty good at hiding things he doesn't want other people knowing." Piper said bitterly. emI almost killed me./emspan class="Apple-converted-space" /span/span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "Yeah, it took us months to figure out who he was… and I only did because of the vision quest…" Phoebe class="Apple-converted-space" /span/span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "We kind of knew something was up?" Paige helped. Piper laughed./span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "We thought he was a demon." She said./span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "At least we weren't Leo?" Phoebe joked./span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "I don't think he had a problem with Leo not liking him… I think he was kind of expecting that one. I think us not liking him hurt, though."span class="Apple-converted-space" /span/span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "Yeah." Phoebe took a deep breath. "So, what do we do?"/span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "He's refusing to see someone." Piper class="Apple-converted-space" /span/span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "Maybe he's not ready." Paige said. Piper didn't understand. "You can't force someone to get help, Piper."/span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "He's my son."span class="Apple-converted-space" /span/span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "It won't work unless he's ready." Phoebe agreed. "Maybe we need to just give it some time?"/span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "I just wish I could fix it." Piper expressed. Paige held her hand./span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "He knows." She class="Apple-converted-space" /span/span/p  
p class="p3" /p  
p class="p3" /p  
p class="p4" /p  
p class="p3" /p  
p class="p1"span class="s1"x/span/p  
p class="p3" /p  
p class="p3" /p  
p class="p3" /p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "He's not picking up." Wyatt shrugged. Melinda rolled her eyes./span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "That's because him and Matt are doing a Marvel marathon… he told me at lunch." She informed. "I wouldn't call unless it's an emergency."/span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "Let's be real, even if we need him… they get really into those things." Wyatt judged. "I tried going over there once and I swear they were speaking in a foreign language."span class="Apple-converted-space" /span/span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "I'm just really hoping Chris knows he has to break to shower first if Bianca comes over." Melinda mentioned. She shuddered./span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "I should probably go tell him." Wyatt thought aloud. "And maybe to not talk either?"/span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "Probably smart." Melinda agreed. "Go, I can unpack everything else on my own."span class="Apple-converted-space" /span/span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "Are you sure?" Wyatt checked./span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "Yeah." Melinda assured. "Thanks for helping."span class="Apple-converted-space" /span/span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "What else would you have done? Actually talked to Skye and Perry?" Wyatt teased./span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "It's weird, okay?"/span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "He's really nice."/span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "And kind of losing his mind?"/span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "Probably not around you, you won't trigger any memor…" Wyatt trailed off as he noticed her shutting down. "You were meant to be born, Mel."/span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "Was I?" She questioned./span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "Mom saw you in the future when she went with Prue and Phoebe." He reminded./span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "Yeah." Melinda took a deep breath. Wyatt gave her a hug and then orbed off. She tucked her hair behind her ear and decided to suck it up. She walked over to the newcomers' door- and Chris's old room. Melinda bit her lip and knocked./span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "Hey, Mel." Skye opened the door. Melinda froze. She hadn't thought of what to class="Apple-converted-space" /span/span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "I'm going to watch a movie downstairs." She blurted out./span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "Oh."/span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "Do you want to join?" She invited./span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "Aw, thanks for thinking of us." Skye smiled. She turned back towards the bed. Chris was stirring awake from a nap. "Babe, you feeling up to watch a movie?"/span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "What are we watching?" Perry wondered. Skye turned to Melinda. Melinda came up with an idea. emLet's see…span class="Apple-converted-space" /span/em/span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "How far did the MCU get before the world went to shit?" She tried. He didn't have to think about it./span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "Infinity Wars just came out." He said. He sat up and rubbed his eyes. He yawned. "I got to see it four times before I ran out of money… why?"/span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "Well the other ones-" He froze. "…Perry?"/span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "Are you okay?" Skye checked. His eyes went wide. She frowned at his sudden liveliness. He had been drained all morning. "Babe?"/span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "I have so many movies to watch." He realized. Melinda couldn't help but laugh. emMaybe he is my brother…/em She thought. "Oh my god…"/span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "The other you is currently doing an MCU marathon weekend if you'd rather-"/span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "He's what?! People do that?"/span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "People like you do…? Chris and Matt are going to try to get through as many of the movies as they can." She explained. "There are too many films to fit into a weekend but-"/span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "Do you have his phone number?" Perry interrupted./span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "Babe, don't you think you're kind of sick to-"/span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "He probably won't respond." Melinda warned. "He's-"/span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "Waiting for a text from Bianca. He'll get it." Perry finished. Melinda shared the contact with class="Apple-converted-space" /span/span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "Chris, the only place you should go is a doctors office." Skye nagged. He shrugged./span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "What's the difference between me watching a movie here and there?" Perry asked, making her think. He thought about what to say for a moment and then typed out his text. He looked up to Skye. "I can always have Paige heal me if I get worse?"/span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "Chris-"/span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "Bi, think of all the other theories I could have come up with?" He could only imagine the possibilities. "I mean, I'm a lot smarter here? There are definitely things he caught- probably filled in some of the blanks I could nev-"/span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "I don't think I can handle a life of two of you geeking out over this stuff." She feared. "You're already pretty bad-"/span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "If you let me go I'll have someone else to discuss things with I won't have to try to explain it all to you anymore?" Perry pitched./span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "Yeah, okay. Go." She said, changing her mind. Perry's phone dinged. He checked class="Apple-converted-space" /span/span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "He said I could come if I brought Ruffles?"/span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "The cheddar ones." Melinda added. Perry got another message. emThe cheddar ones. /em"Ma keeps them in stock for you downstairs."/span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "Great." Perry went to go. He got dizzy and sat back down./span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "Chris?"/span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "I just stood up too fast." He assured. She worried. "I'm okay. Calm down?"/span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "Call me if you need anything?" She hoped. He orbed off slowly./span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "Is he okay?" Melinda noticed. Skye nodded./span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "Yeah, he was just already coming down with something, and then yesterday… just took a lot out of him." She explained. Melinda nodded. "Did you still want to watch a movie?"/span/p  
p class="p3" /p  
p class="p1"span class="s1"x/span/p  
p class="p3" /p  
p class="p1"span class="s1"Perry knocked on the door with Ruffles in his other hand. Chris answered a minute later./span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "Hey." Perry class="Apple-converted-space" /span/span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "Hey." Chris said. There was an awkward silence. "So you're also a comic-"/span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "Yeah." Perry admitted. Chris nodded. Perry nervously glanced over at Matt. Chris shrugged and let him in. Matt turned around as they walked into the common area. Matt swallowed his mouthful of Doritos. He looked at his watch./span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "I'd freak out over this but we only have five minutes between films or we'll never get through them." Matt said. Chris looked at Perry and shrugged. They joined Matt on the couch. Matt cleared his throat. "Okay. Basic rules: commentary appreciated if it's theory or critique, we've already all agreed Scarlett Johansson is a goddess but you can still mention it, fun facts are disallowed because you won't say anything we don't know, we don't pause if you get a phone call or have to go to the bathroom so pace your caffeine appropriately, and if you crinkle a chip bag during suspenseful scenes you're out. We get one thirty minute break, of which Chris has already used to eat lunch with Mel… and five minutes is over so-"/span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "Okay." Perry absorbed. He grabbed the gummy worms. Chris looked over and frowned. He worried if they both liked the same snacks, they might run out. His train of thought was quickly interrupted once the movie started. Half way through the second movie, Chris got a text from Bianca. Perry gave him a look. "Silence is golden ever mean anything to you?"/span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "I like you." Matt decided. Perry smiled. Chris rolled his eyes. He quickly skimmed the message and decided to respond later. Perry chuckled./span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "She's going to get pissed if you keep doing that." He warned. He knew all too well. Chris rolled his eyes. "Fine. Don't blame me when she gets super passive aggressive later…"/span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "Do you know her?" Matt asked. Perry froze. He didn't know what Matt knew./span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "He's how I know her." Chris said. "He's engaged to her… cousin?"/span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "Yeah, first cousin." Perry added. He anxiously ate a Ruffle. Chris stared at him chewing. Perry looked side to side. "Something wrong?"/span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "Don't worry about it." Chris cleared his throat and then took a sip of class="Apple-converted-space" /span/span/p  
p class="p3" /p  
p class="p1"span class="s1"x/span/p  
p class="p3" /p  
p class="p3" /p  
p class="p3" /p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" em"Hurry up, we're going to be late!" Wyatt nags. Chris flips his hair the other direction. He thoroughly enjoyed having hair again, but he couldn't deny it stressed him out. He knew it was a bit too long, but refused to cut it. He flips it back to the original direction. Wyatt opens the bathroom door. "Your hair looks fine and no one's going to see it in the theater anyways."/em/span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1"em "Right." Chris shuts the lights. He quickly stops in his room to grab his wallet and phone before running downstairs. They both smiles at Paige. She rolls her eyes and hands them money for the movies. "Thanks."/em/span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1"em "Go have fun." She wishes. "Drive safe! And don't stay out too late!"/em/span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1"em "Yeah, yeah, yeah, we got it." Wyatt grabs Chris and pulls him out the door. They get in the car and buckle up./em/span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1"em "I can't believe this is finally happening." Chris raves. "I've been waiting for this for so long. Do you have any idea how much I've put into this? Between reading the comics and watching all the movies and reading theor-"/em/span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1"em "Are you going to be annoying in the theater, too?"br / "I will most likely react obnoxiously." Chris warns. Wyatt laughs. Chris gets serious. "Thanks for going with me."/em/span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1"em "Of course. Did you really think I'd let you go alone?" Wyatt replies. Chris shrugs. "I like hanging out with you, remember?"/em/span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1"em "Yeah, well, apparently you're the only one, so…" Chris class="Apple-converted-space" /span/em/span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1"em "Screw them." Wyatt decides. "Do you want me to kick their asses?"/em/span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1"em "You'd really do that?" Chris smirks, imagining it. Wyatt nods, very seriously./em/span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1"em "No one gets to mess with you, do you hear me? I'd kick the world's ass if I had to."/em/span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "You okay?"span class="Apple-converted-space" /span/span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "Yeah." Perry said. Chris bought it for a moment, and then looked back. Even he could tell something more was wrong. He bit his lip and considered pursuing a conversation. Perry took his arms out from under the blanket to rub his eyes. He curled up further in the blanket. He didn't laugh at a funny one liner. Chris frowned./span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "Do you want a Tylenol or something?" He offered. Perry perked up and nodded. "It's in my room."span class="Apple-converted-space" /span/span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "You're going to leave? Now? During-" Matt stopped at Chris's warning look. "Right."/span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "Follow me." Chris directed. Perry did as told. Chris closed his door once they were inside. Perry looked side to side. Chris bit the bullet. "Is everything okay?"/span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "What happened to Tylenol?" Perry asked to avoid the question. Chris picked up on it./span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "Maybe you are me." He thought aloud. He pulled his attention back. "Look, I'm not the best at- but you've been really spacey and seem kind of… is there something I can do to fix-"/span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "I'm really fine." Perry lied./span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "You look miserable." Chris said bluntly./span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "Thanks…" Perry muttered. Chris class="Apple-converted-space" /span/span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "Sorry." Chris quickly apologized. "I'm not so great at the comfort thing…"/span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "Don't worry about it." Perry said. He looked down. Chris shifted his weight to the other foot in their awkward silence. He saw Perry class="Apple-converted-space" /span/span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "Can I at least heal you?"/span/p  
p class="p1"span class="s1" "Wait, what?" Perry's head shot class="Apple-converted-space" /span/span/p 


End file.
